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Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland
# Election 2014
Sinn Féin leads in Dublin, but Hayes faces a fight
Another good result for Sinn Féin means a bad result for the junior Finance Minister.
A SINN FÉIN candidate will take a European Parliament seat in Dublin, but a junior minister faces a tough fight – a new poll says.
The Sunday Independent/Millward Brown poll of Dublin has Lynn Boylan, an Ard Comhairle member within Sinn Féin, sitting on 16 per cent of the decided voters, a point ahead of independent candidate Nessa Childers and four points ahead of junior finance minister Brian Hayes.
Hayes had been thought to be a favourite for one the three seats, but today’s poll shows that he faces a fight with Fianna Fáil’s Mary Fitzpatrick, Labour’s Emer Costello and the Green Party’s Eamon Ryan for the third seat in the capital.
All four candidates are separated by four points, with People Before Profit’s Bríd Smith, sitting MEP Paul Murphy of the Socialist Party and Direct Democracy Ireland’s Tom D’Arcy on four, three and one per cent of support, respectively.
The poll comes a day after the same companies found that Sinn Féin was also on course to claim seats in the South and Midlands North-West constituencies.
In the South, Fine Gael looks set to carry at least one seat, but sitting TD Simon Harris could lose out.
In Midlands-North West, sitting independent TD Luke Ming Flanagan is tied for third place in three-seat constituency, five points off Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy.
Read: Latest poll suggests Sinn Féin on course to win seats in Europe
