FINE Gael election candidate Gay Mitchell will be in Co Donegal today for a whistle-stop tour – as a new poll shows him lagging way behind the other candidates.
Mr Mitchell will tour Raphoe Mart at lunchtime before Cranna College Community School in Buncrana in the afternoon.
Then it’s off to Letterkenny shopping centre for an hour-long walkabout.
Mr Mitchell will then travel to the Supervalu shopping centre in Donegal town for another walkabout.
Fine Gael in the county will be out in force tomorrow to support Mr Mitchell as the latest presidential poll gave him just 9% support in the country.
The Ipsos MRBI poll for today’s Irish Times shows Michael D Higgins leading in the race for the Áras, with Séan Gallagher and Martin McGuinness also polling strongly.
It shows s a big drop in support for David Norris and Mr Mitchell.
This poll was carried out on Monday and Tuesday among 1,000 voters in every constitutency in the State and followed the first debates between the candidates on RTÉ’s News at One and the Late Late Show, but not the encounter on TV3.
It is the first poll for the Irish Times since July when Martin McGuinness and Dana Rosemary Scallon were not in the race.
Since then the proportion of undecided voters has fallen nine points to 18%.
Michael D Higgins leads the poll on 23%, five points higher than he was in the last Irish Times poll in July.
Séan Gallagher is on 20%, seven points higher than in July, while Martin McGuinness is on 19%.
Mary Davis is on 12%, unchanged since July.
David Norris has seen his support drop by 14 points to 11%,
while Gay Mitchell is behind him on 9%, a 12 point drop. Dana Rosemary Scallon is on 6%.
