For the average member of the Irish political, media and NGO complex there are several political issues in Ireland which need to be addressed urgently.

There is the burning need to introduce more stringent hate speech laws, a topic which seemed dormant until Taoiseach Simon Harris resurrected this prospect last week. There is the race to institute even more regulations which will help Ireland show the rest of the world how to tackle climate change.

Inevitably, ever since Ireland joined forces with Norway and Spain in recognising Palestinian statehood back in May, there is the urgent need to show the Irish are on the ‘right side of history’. And the importance of continuing to show other, less enlightened, countries such as the UK and the US how international diplomacy should be conducted.

And, then of course, there is the pressing need to tackle the ever-present threat of the far right, a problem which seems to grow larger ever day – in the minds of Irish politicians, at least.

Indeed, recently speaking at the annual commemoration for Michael Collins, who was ambushed and killed during the Irish Civil war in Beal na Blath in Cork, Harris used the opportunity to condemn those who ‘would stoke hate and division’ and warned that ‘hate and violence have become responses to difficult situations.’

Warming to his theme, he  added that, ‘misinformation and lies are the greatest threat to democracy and peace in our time. Nowhere is that more evident than in the area of migration. There is a group of people who want a country whose history has been woven by mass emigration to diminish the value of migration.’

Of course, the locals in working class, urban and rural areas such as Coolock, Dundrum and countless other towns and estates across Ireland which have been forced to accept large numbers of asylum seekers without any prior consultation may struggle to see the value the Taoiseach is talking about. Harris finished his address by urging the people of Ireland to call out racism and to denounce those who ‘would wave the flag and claim patriotism.’

You would think that if politicians such as Harris, and the numerous NGOs who enjoy lavish government funding, are so concerned about the apparently inexorable rise of the far-right, along with climate change and the Middle East, they must be reflecting the attitudes of the average Irish voter.

But that appears not be the case. Because in an opinion poll published this week by Ipsos and the Irish Times into what has been grabbing the attention of Irish voters in the month of August, there was absolutely no mention of the far-right bogeyman at all.

There was however, plenty of attention given to the untrammelled rise of immigration and the failure of the government to handle this ever escalating mess. In fact, immigration topped the list of voter concerns, with 21 per cent stating that immigration was their biggest worry.

Coming in a close second was the issue of housing, at 19 per cent. Of course, the fact that these two issues are inextricably linked in the minds of most people is no coincidence. Despite the establishment’s increasingly frantic insistence that they have nothing to do with each other, the average punter can see the truth with their own eyes. The equation is a simple one: greater demand leads to less supply. And that incontrovertible reality is currently being played out in every county in the Republic, regardless of what the elites would have everyone else believe.

The fact that immigration and housing are the two top  burning issues for Irish people should have been obvious to anyone who has been paying attention. But the topics which garnered the least interest will have caused much gnashing of teeth and anguish in the corridors of Leinster House.

Despite all the Irish politicians boasting about our proud of our record of being world leaders in recognising Palestinian statehood, only a paltry 2 per cent of voters listed Gaza as a concern.

In other words, despite the Irish media constantly focusing on the war in Gaza in a typically unbalanced fashion and numerous heart rending speeches from the floor of the Dail, it would appear that most Irish people don’t really care one way or the other about Palestine.

Incredibly, it turns out most normal people have more pressing issues on their mind than an intractable, never ending conflict thousands of miles away. Instead, they are focused on the things that really matter to them.

Joining the Palestinian issue on 2 per cent in the list of things that people really don’t care about is climate change, a result which will cause even greater rancour than our apparent indifference to the war in Gaza.

Again, just like the Middle East, climate change has become one of those issues in which the great and the good of the Irish establishment like to think we can become world leaders and show everyone else how it’s done. But, just like every other issue which involves ordinary Irish people, they have got it completely wrong.

There is something undeniably hilarious about the vast gulf between the issues which energise the middle class, liberal intelligentsia and the average working stiff on the street. But this growing disconnect between the voters and the people they vote for is sobering as well. There has been a near total failure of the establishment to understand the issues which are of genuine concern to real people, as opposed to the issues they think people should be obsessing over.

It’s yet another example – and one which seems to be increasingly common across the UK and the rest of Europe – of a technocratic elite being completely out of touch. Not only are politicians failing to understand the entirely legitimate fears and concerns of ordinary people, but they regard those entirely legitimate fears and concerns with something approaching complete contempt.

Simply put, they have created a gaping vacuum of trust between voters and politicians.

They will have nobody to blame but themselves to blame if that vacuum is filled by the genuine far-right and not just people who have honest fears about where this country is heading.