Sinn Fein is still by far the country’s most popular party but the Greens would face a wipeout if an election was called, a new opinion poll has revealed.
Support for Mary Lou McDonald’s party marginally increased to 32%, up 1% since the last survey.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fail remained “unchanged” at 20% and 19% respectively and support for the Green Party remained at 3%.
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But as the Ireland Thinks/Sunday Independent poll has a 3% margin of error it may mean the Green party could end up with no TDs if an election was called now.
There was no bounce in support for Fine Gael since its proposal to cut taxes for middle-income earners, which caused conflict within the coalition parties. In fact 56% of those surveyed said last month’s tax cut call by three junior ministers would make no difference in the next General Election.
The Social Democrats have seen a one-point increase in support to 6% while independents and others are up from 12% to 13%.
Support for Solidarity/People Before Profit is down one to 3% while the Labour Party also saw its popularity decline by one point to 3%.
This poses problems for the new Labour leader Ivana Bacik, as on this showing her party would struggle to retain any Dail seats if an election was called now.
The Ireland Thinks/Sunday Independent poll was carried out on a sample size of 1,136 people and a margin of error of plus or minus 3%. When it came to party leaders, new Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns remains the most popular at 44%, with Micheal Martin and Mary Lou McDonald behind her at 43% (unchanged) and 41% (up two points) respectively.
When asked, 40% said they would support the return of the current coalition in a forced choice, while support for a Sinn Fein-led government excluding Fine Gael and Fianna Fail is down four points to 38%.
The poll also found widespread support for a “snap” General Election with just 18% in favour of going to the polls now compared to 29% in previous surveys.
In contrast, 45% of people want to wait until 2025 to vote. Some 22% want a General Election in the next six months.
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