The Labour Party leader, Mr Dick Spring, yesterday called on party members to come out fighting for Adi Roche after an IMS poll showed support for her had almost halved in a fortnight.
Mr Spring said he believed Ms Roche's campaign could be turned around if she received sufficient support from within the party. Ms Roche is officially the candidate of the campaign group People's Alliance, which also includes Democratic Left and the Green Party. He announced that he is to cancel all appointments to concentrate on the campaign. One of Ms Roche's problems, he said, was that "she is not what the Dublin Four Law Library set require."
In the poll, published in the Sunday Independent, support for Ms Roche stood at 20 per cent - down from 38 per cent in the last IMS poll for the paper published on September 18th.
The poll had Mary McAleese well ahead at 38 per cent, up three points from her earlier showing. Mary Banotti came second with 26 per cent, a sharp increase from her earlier showing of 18 per cent.
Dana (Rosemary Scallon) got just 8 per cent, down one point, and Mr Derek Nally also got 8 per cent support in the first opinion poll indication of his standing with the voters.
When second and third preferences were distributed, the poll had Prof McAleese winning the election with 55 per cent support from transfers, and Ms Banotti coming second with 45 per cent.