Connacht and ulster voters more likely to vote for prowind power politicians

Almost half of Connacht and Ulster adults cited they are more likely to vote in favour of politicians who support wind power, according to a new survey.

The research, which was carried out on behalf of advocates of wind turbines, revealed that 46% of Connacht and Ulster people of voting age are more likely to vote for politicians who support wind power, while only eight per cent would be less likely to vote for a politician who supported wind power. Meanwhile 45% of Connacht and Ulster voters believed that the matter would have no bearing on how they cast their vote.

The survey, carried out by Empathy Research on behalf of Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA), is nationally representative based on a sample of 1,093 Irish adults aged 18+ years old and is quota controlled by age, gender and region.

Almost two-thirds of Ireland’s young people, aged between 18 to 24 years old (64%) cited they would be more likely to support a candidate supportive of wind power. Only three per cent of Ireland’s young people, in the same age profile said that they would be less likely to support an election candidate supportive of wind power.

Commenting on the findings, CEO of the Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA), Kenneth Matthews, said: “We regularly sample the views of people towards wind energy and know that the majority of people in Cavan and Monaghan are supportive of wind energy. This new research reaffirms that and clearly demonstrates that an election candidate’s position on wind energy is likely to influence a significant number of voters come the next election.”

Contributes 
The Empathy Research study also found that 70% of Irish adults ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ that wind energy contributes positively to the national economy, with 69% agreeing that wind energy has a positive effect on the environment. 81% of Irish adults emphasised the importance of Ireland developing wind energy to have our own secure source of energy.

“Irish people realise that wind energy is delivering vital investment into the Irish economy, whilst at the same time helping us to reduce our dependency on pollution intensive foreign fossil fuels. As a country which is currently 89% dependent on foreign energy imports, costing Ireland approximately €6.7 billion per year, wind energy is helping Ireland to secure our own clean energy future, meeting approximately 28% of our overall electricity demand for the first two months of 2015, and is making a positive contribution to communities across the country,” said Matthews.