Sinn Féin’s David Cullinane has denied that the party’s performance in recent opinion polls has tumbled due to suggestions it is linked to organised crime.
It comes following several mentions of Sinn Féin during the ongoing Gerry Hutch trial in the Special Criminal Court.
Former Sinn Fein councillor Jonathan Dowdall was sentenced to four years in prison last year for facilitating the murder of David Byrne in Dublin’s Regency Hotel in February 2016.
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He is currently testifying as part of the State’s case against Hutch.
In tapes heard during the trial, Dowdall could be heard saying that Sinn Féin and leader Mary Lou McDonald had “used” the Hutch family for money and votes. Ms McDonald has denied these charges.
In a Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll last Sunday, support for Sinn Féín dropped by two points to 32%.
When asked if he believed that support had dropped over suggested links to crime, Mr Cullinane denied that there were any such links.
He said: “First of all, there is no links to criminality, I completely reject that assertion.
“Sinn Féin is not just a democratic party, but the people who vote for us are decent people. The people who are party members are decent people.
“We're in the throes of a very difficult period now for citizens where we have a cost of living crisis. We have a housing crisis where people can't get access to affordable homes. We have a crisis in our healthcare system.
“I would imagine that you could put any citizen in front of me right now, the question you asked [about links to criminality] would not be the question that they would ask.
“I don't look at any one single poll. I'm very comfortable with where Sinn Féin are in the polls. We're well ahead of the other parties.
“There's always going to be ups and downs and slight adjustments and opinion polls.”
The most recent poll showed Sinn Féin significantly ahead of the Government parties, at 32%.
Fine Gael experienced a two point boost to 25%, while Fianna Fáil dropped one point to 16%.
The Green Party, meanwhile, saw its support increase by one point to 4%.
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