The Social Democrats are the leading party that students plan to give their number one vote for in the upcoming general election, with 31% of students planning on giving the party support on the ballot.
Sinn Féin took second place for student’s first preference votes, polling at 21%. Fine Gael polled at 15% and was the third choice option amongst students surveyed.
Of the issues that students identified as the most important issue for them this general election, 35% said cost of living, 33% said housing, and 7% said climate change. 4.9 % of students said immigration, and 4.7% of students said Palestine.
The demographics of student voters who filled out the survey featured 235 women, 205 men, and seven non-binary people. 225 students from Arts and Humanities courses voted, 155 respondents from Science Technology Engineering and Maths courses made up the vote, and 38 students who study health sciences – including medicine and dentistry students – were also polled.
Of the students who were polled 87% were registered to vote. Of those registered to vote, 71.1% will be voting for the first time.
The poll was open last week from Tuesday evening to Friday evening, on November 19th to November 22nd.
32 students polled made an error on one question or more. In these instances, their responses have been removed from the poll.
The poll has a margin of error calculated at 4.6% more or less than our current polling data.
The Ipsos/Irish Times B&A poll published on Monday was based upon 1,200 face-to-face interviews. Its accuracy is estimated at plus or minus 2.8%. The poll was conducted between Wednesday and Saturday and showed that support for Fine Gael is at 19%, Fianna Fáil at 21%, and Sinn Féin is at 20%.
The Social Democrats are polling at 6%, while support for the Green Party and Labour is at 4%. People Before Profit-Solidarity and Aontú are polling at 3%.
This shows a wide disparity between the voting preferences of those enrolled in higher education in Trinity College Dublin compared to the general public.
The University Times polled students in person and online. The in-person component of polling took place in the Arts Block, the Hamilton Building, Students and the Pav. The majority of students polled opted to poll via a QR code or link online that was shared to The University Times website and social media.
