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MINISTER LEO VARADKAR remains ahead of his party rival Simon Coveney in the race to become the next leader of Fine Gael, according to the latest opinion poll.
The Sunday Times Behaviour and Attitudes poll puts support for Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar at 25%. Rival Simon Coveney is one point behind on 24%.
Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government Simon Coveney has bounded ahead of Varadkar with Fine Gael supporters, however. Support for him among likely Fine Gael voters is up two points to 33%.
Meanwhile, support for Varadkar among this cohort is down six points to 28%.
Speculation about when current Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach Enda Kenny will step down. Kenny has been closely guarding his planned departure date, deflecting questions on the issue for the past few months.
Either Coveney or Varadkar are well ahead to take his position, but Education Minister Richard Bruton and Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald are also in the mix.
Support for Bruton is up four points to 9%; while Fitzgerald is unchanged on 5%.
Party support
Meanwhile, Fine Gael remains a single point ahead of rival party Fianna Fáil, according to the poll.
The party is at a 28% approval rate, down 1% since the last survey. Fianna Fáil is at 27%, also down one point.
There is a 3.5% margin of error in the poll.
In general, the parties are on much of the same footing as the last poll. Sinn Fein remains unchanged on 18%, while Labour is down one point to 4%.
A full breakdown of the results are:
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He deserves a lengthy jail sentence, I wonder how many other times he had alcohol taken and didn’t get caught. Airlines need to breathalyse pilots as standard procedure like some coach companies do.
He likely faked the faint after a member of cabin crew said something to him, trying to fake illness perhaps!
Are you two related? Honestly now…
Lol, I didn’t realise, posted with FB account then replied to myself with Twitter account
Haha.. classic
Should be a lifetime ban from flying for that, too serious a crime.
Don’t get the last sentence.. Surely he wasn’t on the flight to Cancun??
Yep, he was heading south of the border for some serious partying………
Tosser should never be allowed to fly again.
What an inconsiderate arse!
When you’re being breathalyzed in Canada the Mountie asks you to say Saskatchewan without blinking.
Haha, being Canadian I found that funny!
I wonder how they got the horses onto the airplane……..
He was Slovakian, just a work permit, throws it all away.
“The authorities said the pilot had more than three times the authorized amount of alcohol (0.08% in Canada) in his body two hours after his arrest.”
… what is the alcohol rate for a pilot – it is 0.025? Or did he have 0.24 which would be half our driving limit. Interesting what behaving strangely meant – most people would appear after a pint,
A Career Terminating Move I hope
Professional drivers in Ireland is zero percent, I presume the same applies for pilots.
Not true.
The limit for professional and learner drivers is 20mls per 100 mlts.
There are no zero limits because while it sounds great it’s impractical.
Remember, zero means even the most minute amount of alcohol from for example a mouthwash could land somebody in prison.
@Tom Burke: Ross is rabbitting on about making 20 the standard for all drivers in Ireland. I have my doubts if its the drivers between 20 and 50 or 50 and 80 for that matter are behind so many deaths. 50 is a sensible level.
Read the same article (practically verbatim) on the BBC yesterday – assume he was 0.24
At least he had a good NYE party.
Those autopilots are far too good…’Captain you are over the limit will you please take a pillow and lie back while I take control of this flight to Mehico’!
Sauce for the Moose?
I really don’t care but I am just wondering, was he put in jail or left back on the plane again ?
The pilot was subsequently escorted out of the plane and was placed in jail, police said.
OR
The flight took off with another pilot maneuvering the Boeing 737 plane with 99 passengers and six crewmembers, including the pilot who was charged.
Scarey, no?
have your say