Stephen Collins, Political Editor

Michael Noonan and Joan Burton are the stars of the cabinet, according to this week’s Irish Times Ipsos MRBI public opinion poll. James Reilly trails badly with the lowest rating.

It also indicates that Simon Coveney and Leo Varadkar have established themselves as the leading figures of the next generation of leaders in Fine Gael.

Mr Noonan has improved his standing since previous polls measuring satisfaction with individual Ministers conducted in October, 2012, and June of this year.

He is clearly getting a lot of the credit for the bailout exit. Fine Gael supporters are clearly happy with his performance, 73 per cent of them expressing satisfaction. Even 42 per cent of Labour supporters are happy with his performance.

Remarkably Noonan gets a higher rating from Labour voters than any of the Labour Ministers although he is just marginally ahead of Joan Burton and Eamon Gilmore is not far behind.

Ms Burton owes her high national standing to the fact that she also scores very well among Fine Gael voters and does quite well with Fianna Fail voters.

Simon Coveney comes in joint third place not far behind the two leaders with 39 per cent of people satisfied with the way he is doing his job. He does best among Fine Gael voters with 61 per cent of them satisfied but he also scores well with Fianna Fail voters, a majority of whom are satisfied with his performance.

Frances Fitzgerald also gets a 39 per cent rating although in absolute terms she is a little behind Mr Coveney. She does well among supporters of all political parties and has clearly made an impression on the public as Minister for Children.

Just behind her is Leo Vardakar on 38 per cent but among Fine Gael supporters he is second only to Mr Noonan on 66 per cent. Somewhat surprisingly, given his perceived right wing views, he also does well among Labour supporters with a 39 per cent rating, which is actually higher than that achieved by some of the party’s own Ministers.

Richard Bruton and Ruairi Quinn come next in the pecking order with a 34 per cent rating. Unsurprisingly Mr Bruton does best among Fine Gael voters and does reasonably well among Labour voters.

Mr Quinn actually does better among Fine Gael voters than Labour voters and also gets a reasonable rating from Sinn Fein supporters.

At 30 per cent Alan Shatter has moved up sharply by ten points since the last poll in June in which some senior Ministers were rated. The penalty points controversy was in full spate at the time and clearly pulled his score down.

Brendan Howlin is just behind him on 29 per cent. As with other Labour Ministers he gets a better rating from Fine Gael voters than he does from his own party’s supporters. IN fact he gets a better rating from Fianna Fail voters than from Labour voters.

Rated for his performance as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Eamon Gilmore gets a higher score than he does as party leader. His Ministerial rating of 27 per cent is boosted by a strong showing among Fine Gael supporters where he scores 53 per cent and among his own party voters who give him 40 per cent.

Pat Rabbitte gets an identical score to Mr Gilmore. His rating is significantly higher among Fine Gael voters who give him a 54 per cent compared to Labour voters who give him 28 per cent not much more than Fianna Fail supporters 24 per cent of whom are satisfied with his performance.

Jimmy Deenihan comes next on the list with a satisfaction of 22 per cent. This is mainly due to the fact that a significant proportion of voters, 38 per cent, have no opinion on his stewardship of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

Phil Hogan’s rating has improved a little since the last poll in June but he gets just 18 per cent. He has clearly suffered from the negative publicity surrounding the introduction of the property tax, water charges and septic tank registrations.

Bottom of the list is James Reilly on 15 per cent although he has improved somewhat since the last poll. Fine Gael voters give him the best score with 36 per cent but he has borne the brunt of all the controversy that inevitably surrounds the health service. (ends)