Recent polls have shown that 16% of Irish people would do the same if given the chance – but the real figure could be much higher.

Sunday Independent columnist David Quinn told The Pat Kenny Show that he believes this number is inaccurate.

“I think if you had a Trump type person in the country – not exactly like Trump, but just that level of fame, provocative, etcetera," he said.

"If that person was seemingly addressing concerns that voters think are not being addressed by the other parties, you can easily image somebody like that, in my opinion, rising to about 30%."

Former US President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Picture: Globe Photos/Zuma Press/PA Images. Dec. 1, 1998

Mr Quinn said that while he believed people had answered the poll truthfully, the situation would not play out as projected.

“Consider how popular Bill Clinton remains in Ireland,” he said.

“The more accusations came out against him, the more popular he seemed to become – in America as well as here, because the economy was doing well at that time.

“It's amazing what voters seem to be able to overlook if they think either this guy will fix our problems, or things are already fine and I don't want to upset the apple cart.”

Working class issues

Mr Quinn said that President-elect Trump had appealed hugely to working class Americans.

“It turns out he won because he got basically nearly all the swing voters,” he said.

“All the swing voters in America seem to be willing to look at him and say – ‘well, you know what, despite you and your personality and your flaws and the chaos that surrounds you, we think we were better off under you than we have been under Biden’.”

Ethnic minorities

Mr Quinn said that many minority voters were clearly in favour of Trump, since he won 46% of the Latino vote according to exit polls.

“It'll be interesting to see, as the years pass by, what that same phenomenon will do here in Ireland,” he said.

“You might have second generation migrants here in Ireland that feel that continuing immigration – particularly if there's a lot of illegal immigration into Ireland – is providing them with too much competition for jobs, housing, driving down wages and that kind of thing."

Mr Quinn said we should not expect ethnic minorities to vote in blocs in future elections.