Kenneth Fox
Sinn Féin is still Ireland’s most popular party, a new opinion poll shows, with Mary Lou McDonald overtaking Tánaiste Leo Varadkar in the leadership approval ratings.
The Sunday Independent poll puts Sinn Féin at 33 per cent, up two points.
Fine Gael is more than 10 points behind at 22 per cent (up one point). Fianna Fáil fell two points to 18 per cent while the Greens were also down one point to 3 per cent.
As the Irish Examiner reports, the Labour Party, now led by Ivana Bacik who recently replaced Alan Kelly, was up one to 4 per cent.
The Social Democrats were unchanged at 6 per cent, while Solidarity-People Before Profit was down two to 2 per cent.
Aontú was up one to 3 per cent while independents and others were up one to 10 per cent.
Mary Lou McDonald has risen above Tánaiste Leo Varadkar in the leadership approval ratings, according to the opinion poll
Taoiseach Micheál Martin is the most popular leader, rated 4.3 out of 10. Ms McDonald’s score is 4.1 while Mr Varadkar’s is 3.8.
The poll was based on the responses of 1,135 people with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 per cent, and was conducted for the Sunday Independent.
