Sinn Féin leads in new poll despite slippage

The poll also shows that Maty Lou McDonald is now more highly-rated than Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, though both have seen their rating out of 10 drop

Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald is the most popular political leader in the country according to the latest poll. Picture Brian Lawless/PA

Sinn Féin remains the most popular party in the country despite slipping somewhat in the latest opinion poll.

The Irish Mail On Sunday/Ireland Thinks poll published today also shows that Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald is the most popular leader in the country. 

The poll shows that Ms McDonald is now more highly-rated than Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, though both have seen their rating out of 10 drop. 

Ms McDonald is now rated at 4.4/10 by respondents, with Mr Varadkar at 4.3;  Taoiseach Micheál Martin is rated at 3.8.

Ms McDonald's party stands at 28%, down 1.3 percentage points since a poll last month. In the Government parties, Fine Gael is on 25.6% of support (-2.6 points), with Fianna Fáil down slightly to 14.7% and the Greens up 1.6 points to 4.5%. 

Across the opposition, the Social Democrats are up a percentage point to 5.7%, Labour up 0.2 points to 4.9%, Aontú up the same to 4.1% and Solidarity/People Before Profit down 0.1 points to 3.1%. Independents and others are at 9.4% support.

The poll, which sampled 1,068 people, shows that people's confidence in the Government's ability to tackle the pandemic has dipped considerably, with 56% saying that they do not. 

Just 20% of people rated the Government's performance as good or very good.

On when restrictions should be lifted, 59% of people said that the Government should wait until daily Covid-19 cases drop to below 20 per day with three quarters saying that they would prefer a harsher, shorter lockdown over a longer period with fewer restrictions. 

Just 5% of people think the economy should reopen now. 

A plurality of respondents backed the Government's plans to work towards the Leaving Cert exams.