More than 40% of people believe Barry Cowen should have stepped down as a minister over the drink-driving controversy, a survey revealed today.
The uncertainty over the length of time the 49-year-old had held a provisional licence was another big factor in the criticism which followed the 2016 incident.
And 70% of people believe that stricter laws should be enforced for temporary licence holders that are caught driving without another qualified person present.
The iReach poll revealed that 42% of adults believed Deputy Cowen, 52, should have stepped down as agriculture minister over the scandal.
Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin announced the shock sacking of the Laois-Offaly TD on Tuesday evening in the Dail chamber.
Deputy Cowen has been under pressure for the 10 preceding days over a drink-driving conviction from 2016 that only emerged two weeks ago.
About 1,000 people were quizzed about their views on drink driving in the nationally representative survey between Thursday, July 9 and Wednesday,
July 15.
Other poll results found that one-fifth of respondents admitted to driving over the limit and 82% of that cohort said they had done so
numerous times.
More than two out of every adults (69%) agree that more should be done to reduce the amount of drink driving in Ireland.
And almost three-quarters (73%) of people believe that most people in Ireland drive over the legal limit a lot less now than in the past.
More than six in 10 adults (61%) agreed that drink-driving is a major problem in rural areas, whereas 44% of people felt it was a big issue in urban Ireland.
Meanwhile, almost half of respondents (47%) said that getting behind the wheel with booze in the system was a difficulty associated with younger adults.
However, in contrast, a sizeable proportion of those polled (50%) believed that drink-driving was a major problem for older people.
