THE HOUSE DOESN’T always win, it seems. A Red C poll carried out on behalf of bookmakers Paddy Power has put Senator David Norris top of the poll to become the next President of Ireland. However, Senator Norris was only third favourite in odds provided to TheJournal.ie by Paddy Power a few days ago.

Their bet statisticians had given Norris a 9/2 chance, along with Barnardos CEO Fergus Finlay. Brian Crowley was 7/2 second favourite and Michael D Higgins was 11/4 favourite.

The public opinion poll reads very differently. According to figures published by RTE and Newstalk, the Red C poll put independent Senator Norris in first place with 27 per cent and Fine Gael MEP Mairead Guinness in second place with 13 per cent. Fianna Fail and Labour votes were split because they have two potential candidates each. FF MEP Brian Crowley is at 10 per cent while Bertie Ahern is at 12 per cent. Michael D Higgins is at 11 per cent and Fergus Finlay is at 10 per cent should they run for Labour.

Five per cent of the 1,000 people surveyed said they would not vote at all in the presidential election, due to go ahead this October.

Last week, TheJournal.ie looked at David Norris’s fledgling campaign to achieve a nomination in the presidential race. On his website norrisforpresident.ie he is looking for donations and volunteers. On Twitter, he revealed that he had already put a €50 bet on himself early last year at 33/1 that he would be the next president of Ireland.