The poor showing for Fine Gael in an opinion poll published yesterday was "pretty inevitable", according to party deputy Mr Brian Hayes.
Mr Hayes said that given the revelations last week on the $50,000 donation to the party he was not surprised at how they fared in the Sunday Independent/IMS poll.
"It was pretty inevitable given the circumstances of the last week and the intense publicity received on the issue of the donation. It was inevitable we would take a hit and we did."
The poll found that Fine Gael support at 13 per cent was down six points in urban areas. This was one point lower than the Labour Party, which was unchanged at 14 per cent.
The poll was conducted last Thursday but only in urban areas due to foot-and-mouth restrictions. Mr Hayes, the party's social and community affairs spokesman, said this would have "skewed" the poll, where 40 per cent of people in rural areas were excluded.
It was also interesting that at 27 per cent the number of undecideds was "unbelievably high". "Given that we were all over the newspapers over the donation issue, one could have almost predicted it."
The poll also found that party leader Mr Michael Noonan was more unpopular among voters that his predecessor Mr John Bruton. Satisfaction with Mr Noonan was at 32 per cent, three points lower than Mr Bruton's comparative support in urban areas last November.
Mr Hayes said he had not spoken to Mr Noonan yesterday about the poll results. "If an opinion poll was done the previous week I expect it would have been a totally different result. When we get out of this in a few weeks' time I would like to see the numbers then. How reflective it really is, I don't know."
The poll found that support for Fianna Fail at 51 per cent was up six points, its Government partners, the Progressive Democrats, were at 3 per cent, down two points. The Green party was at 4 per cent, also down two points, and Others were at 15 per cent, up one point. Among support for the Others, Sinn Fein at 9 per cent was up three points.