A senior Fine Gael TD has called on the incoming party leader Simon Harris to abandon the Government’s hate speech legislation and return Fine Gael to “core” values. He said these values do not include abortion.

The call comes as an Irish Times/Ipsos B&A Snapshot poll cited the Family and Care referendums (23pc), housing (16 pc), and immigration (14pc) as the top issues impacting the electorate’s view of the Government.

Michael Ring, a former minister, told RTÉ’s This Week programme: “We need to go back to small businesses and farmers and we need to forget about a lot of these social issues we have been raising over the last few years that have been annoying people and upsetting people.”

“I want the hate bill gone, and I want to get rid of that daft idea of opening pubs all night. I will be stronger this time and I won’t be allowing Fine Gael to go into these kinds of social issues that people don’t want,” he said.

“Our core values are not abortion, our core values are not to open pubs all night, our core values are not about hate speech”.