Tánaiste Joan Burton has said there are many undecided voters in the election as she played down an opinion poll suggesting she was in grave danger of losing her seat.

A poll in the Irish independent Ms Burton has less than 10 per cent of the votes in her constituency of Dublin West - less than half of what she achieved in 2011.

Ms Burton said the poll had a smaller sample of voters so there was a very high margin of error at over 4 per cent.

There was also a very high level of undecided voters.

“Dublin west has always been a battleground and that’s the way voters like it,” she told reporters as she highlighted the party’s housing policy at a new development at Waterville in Blanchardstown.

She expressed confidence in the work she and the Labour Party had done for the constituency and said unemployment in Blanchardstown was down below the 8.6 per cent national average.

She compared her situation to that of the late former Fianna Fáil finance minister Brian Lenihan who she said was under serious pressure in the 2011 election. She said many commentators had lost confidence that he would retain his seat.

In the end Mr Lenihan was the party’s only Dublin-based TD to be returned to the Dáil.

She said she faced a similar challenge to Mr Lenihan but she believed her record would stand to her.

Asked about transfers she agreed she had been told she was transfer friendly.

Ms Burton added that in 2002 and 2007 she said commentators in the media didn’t have a lot of confidence “in my ability to be elected” but they had been proven wrong.

She said she was looking forward to tonight's leaders debate on TV3.

Ms Burton said she hoped it would focus on the future of Ireland and she pointed out that she was the only female leader in the debate.

Ms Burton added that she had a major commitment to education, children and childcare and that with the greater representation of women in politics it had made the debate much stronger in childcare.

Asked about changes to her campaign strategy in the wake of her poor opinion poll showing Ms Burton said the party would continue its campaign, setting out the issues and they would meet the voters and keep working right up to close of polling on February 26th.

Social housing

She was speaking to reporters after she visited Olga Kelly who moved into her four-bedroom social housing home last year.

Olga Kelly (33) and her partner moved into the four-bedroom house in November with their four children after 10 months living in a hotel.

Ms Burton handed her the key of the door, the first resident in the housing estate, paying €55 in rent a week.

However Ms Kelly said she was giving a vote in the election to David Mc Guinness and she didn't know who her second vote would go to. Speaking before Ms Burton's arrival she said the Tánaiste had had no input into what had happened to her, that her only input was as a high profile person handing her the key.

She added that her partner had voted for Ms Burton.

The Tánaiste said the party’s vision was to create 110,000 social houses over the next five years.

Ms Kelly left her private rental accommodation when the landlord sold up. She became homeless because she had to give up her job as she could not afford childcare.

Fingal County Council bought some of the 44-house development which is a mixed private and social housing estate

Ms Burton described the development as new beginning of the future of housing in Ireland.

Each of the houses have solar panels and Ms Kelly said she never had to turn on the heating because the house was constantly warm.