A majority of voters believe asylum seekers should be kept under direct State provision rather than being allowed to work or claim benefits, according to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll.

Asked what they think should happen, 54 per cent said they should be kept under direct provision, 31 per cent said they should be given refugee status and allowed to work and claim benefits while 15 per cent had no opinion.

Age and class

There are also wide variations across age groups and class on the issue with older and better-off people more in favour of allowing asylum seekers to work while younger and working-class voters are more inclined to favour the direct provision system.

In class terms the best off AB voters are the most in favour of allowing asylum seekers to work by a narrow margin of 45 per cent to 38 per cent.

This widens out to 57 per cent to 25 per cent among the poorest DE voters. Farmers are in the middle of the range.

There is a similar pattern across the age groups. Surprisingly, the over 65s are the most liberal in their attitude while the age group most hostile to abandoning the direct provision system is the 25 to 34 cohort closely followed by 18 to 24 year olds.