Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has attributed increased support for Fianna Fáil in the latest Irish Times/Mrbi poll to a "honeymooon period" which he said would end very soon.
Speaking at the launch of the latest phase of the party’s campaign for a Yes vote in the Lisbon Treaty referendum in Dublin this morning, Mr Kenny said Bertie Ahern's recent departure was the longest period of leaving of a party leader, and the longest lead-in to a new leadership in Irish political history.
Mr Kenny said that give the recent weeks of "unadulterated adulation" for Fianna Fail, he was surprised the party's 42 per cent support rating wasn't "way up in the high 50s".
"All honeymoons are assumed to be periods of delirious happiness but the bills have to be paid when they come home. And the bills are going to be paid with a vengance when reality dawns on this Government very shortly," Mr Kenny said.
"I would say that the 5,000 women that are waiting for letters [on health tests] in the north east, the 100,000 couples facing negative equity, the thousands who are having services withdrawn from hospitals, they're not really interested in this poll; they are interested in the absolute failure of the Government to manage their affairs.
"An indication of the lack of active, real leadership, is the fact that the new Taoiseach has not rejected the pay increases for Ministers, has kept Minister Mary Harney in her office when she has been a complete failure in her office and has failed to provide the services that people pay [for] through their taxes."
Mr Kenny said that when "conventional politics" returned next autumn that "no Minister in this Government is going to go to bed easy".
On the drop in his personal poll rating in today's poll, Mr Kenny said: "From my own point of view, obviously, you know, polls go up and polls go down. My job is to prosecute the Government in that House...and I will show a level of energy and commitment and endeavour to this job that is unprecedented from many points of view. And I really do look forward with enthusiasm to this challenge," he said.
"The Fine Gael party is restructuring the way we are doing our business now now and in terms of facing down this Government and putting forward an alternative and a better viewpoint, we will not be found wanting."
Mr Kenny said Fine Gael had proven the media wrong at the last election with its seat gains in Dublin and he was "very heartened" by the progress the party was making in the capital in particular.