The public takes a nuanced view on neutrality and on relations with Donald Trump, but has a hard line on social media companies and what the Government should do about them, the latest Irish Times/Ipsos B&A opinion poll shows.
Today contains the final instalment of the poll’s findings and covers the public’s views on neutrality, the US president and aspects of social media regulation.
There is wide support for the insertion of Irish neutrality into the Constitution, something that reflects the public’s long-held attachment to the policy, but also perhaps unease and an international environment that is uncertain and threatening.
In effect, neutrality has always meant whatever the government of the day has decided it meant. That situation seems likely to continue – the Government says that its promised abolition of the triple lock will not affect Irish neutrality; the Opposition insists that the move would represent the “final nail in the coffin” on this issue.
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Long-time watchers of Irish politics are entitled to view this debate as ironic. When the triple lock was touted as a guarantee that neutrality would not be affected by the Nice Treaty, it was Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil who argued that the triple lock ensured Irish neutrality.
Now they are arguing that its removal does not affect neutrality. Many of those who argued then that the triple lock did not safeguard neutrality now say its removal would be the end of neutrality. Take your pick.
Either way, the addition of a guarantee of neutrality to the Constitution enjoys wide support, with majorities in favour among supporters of all the big parties.
But the question of the triple lock is more divisive. While a majority of those who express a view (45 per cent) wish to keep the triple lock in place, a substantial minority (35 per cent) want to get rid of it, while 21 per cent say they don’t know.
Fianna Fáil supporters are more or less evenly split on the question (40-39 in favour of keeping it), Fine Gael voters want to get rid of it and Sinn Féin supporters are strongly in favour of keeping it, by a margin of two to one.
The Government has said it would bring forward the legislation later this year.
At the same time, however, voters strongly believe that the Republic should take more responsibility for our defence, with 85 per cent of respondents agreeing and just 8 per cent disagreeing. There is strong support across all demographics and among supporters of all parties.
Views on relations with Trump differ on whether the “fixture” is at home or away. Voters are narrowly in favour of Taoiseach Micheál Martin going to the White House for St Patrick’s Day – 48 per cent in favour, 45 per cent against – but don’t want the US president in Ireland.
By almost a two-to-one margin, voters don’t want him invited to Doonbeg, Co Clare, for the Irish Open this year. Depending on how you choose to interpret this, it displays a subtle diplomatic sensitivity or is simple hypocrisy. Or maybe those two things are the same.
Voters are unambiguously hardline on social media companies, though. Three-quarters favour banning under-16s from social media and 90 per cent say social media platforms that have broken the law by circulating illegal images should be banned.
It’s a topic with which the Government – mindful of the importance of US tech companies to the State’s economy and of the close ties the industry has to the Trump administration – is wrestling. But the public has certainly made up its mind.
