Opinion poll: Holly Cairns now the most popular party leader; Sinn Féin increases lead as most popular party
Cork South-West TD and leader of the Social Democrats Holly Cairns is now the most popular political party leader in the country, according to a new opinion poll. Picture: Moya Nolan
Cork South-West TD and leader of the Social Democrats Holly Cairns is now the most popular political party leader in the country, according to a new opinion poll.
The Ireland Thinks poll, carried out for the , interviewed 1,102 people between Friday and Saturday of this week, the same period in which the eviction ban lapsed.
The latest poll puts Ms Cairns' approval rating at 45% — two points higher than Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and Tánaiste Micheál Martin, both of whom hold a 43% rating.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's rating has dropped two points to 38% and Labour's Ivana Bacik's rating is unchanged at 32%.
Aontú’s Peadar Tóibín's approval rating slid by one point to 28%, while Green Party leader Eamon Ryan was the least popular party leader with 22%, according to the poll.
As has been the case in previous polls, Sinn Féin remains the most popular party in the country. The party's support rose by 2% in the last four weeks, bringing its overall support to 31%.
With 22% support — an increase of one percentage point — Fine Gael is the second-most popular party.
Fianna Fáil's approval rating dropped by three points to 16%, while the Social Democrats support also fell by 2 percentage points to 7%.
Support for the Green Party, Labour and Aontú remained unchanged at 4%, 3% and 3%, respectively, while People Before Profit / Solidarity increased its polling score by one point to 3%.
Support for Independents and others was also unchanged at 10%.
The margin of error for the latest poll is +/- 3%.
