Sinn Féin in the Republic is maintaining a 10 point lead on Fine Gael, according to a new opinion poll.
The party, led by Mary Lou McDonald, has increased its support to 33 per cent - a rise of two points.
The Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll, which was published yesterday, also shows that Fine Gael is down two points to 23 per cent, Fianna Fáil up two to 19 per cent and the Green party is down one point on three per cent.
Support for the Social Democrats has also risen by four per cent, which is level with Labour who are unchanged with Solidarity People Before Profit on three per cent and Aontú on two per cent - both down one.
According to the poll, the Sinn Féin president, Ms McDonald, is also the most popular political leader in the Republic with a score of 4.1 out of 10, followed by Fianna Fáil's Micheál Martin (3.9), Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar (3.8) and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan (2.3).
However, the poll found that more voters preferred the current Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael/Greens coalition to a Sinn Féin-led alternative left-wing government.
The poll found that if they were forced to make a choice, 38 per cent preferred the current government of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party, compared to 34 per cent opting for a Sinn Féin-led government that included smaller left-wing parties such as the Green Party, Labour Party and Social Democrats.
There was also little support for a Sinn Féin/Fianna Fáil coalition, which received the backing of just one in 10, while a Sinn Féin/ Fine Gael coalition was only supported by three per cent of those polled.
But the online poll, which was carried out across the Republic with a representative sample of 1,369, found that 44 per cent of those surveyed said their preference for the next housing minister is Sinn Féin's Eoin Ó Broin, while a third (33per cent) said they wanted serving minister Darragh O’Brien to continue in the role.
Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty received less support for becoming the Republic's next finance minister (36 per cent) compared to Fine Gael’s Paschal Donohoe, who was the choice of 40 per cent to retain the portfolio.
The poll also found that 45 per cent of those questioned do not believe the Covid-19 pandemic will be over this year, with 73 per cent saying that they do not favour getting rid of all restrictions immediately.
It was also found that 45 per cent were confident in the Irish government's handling of the coronavirus crisis.
