ANOTHER opinion poll has identified Sinn Féin as the most popular political party in the Republic.
The Irish Mail on Sunday/Ireland Thinks poll said support for Sinn Féin stands at 29 per cent, one point ahead of Fine Gael on 28 per cent and almost double that of Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s Fianna Fáil, which is back on 15 per cent.
It is a narrower gap than last month’s Behaviour and Attitudes poll for The Sunday Times, which showed Mary Lou McDonald’s party with a five-point lead over Fine Gael.
Ireland Think’s opinion poll in November had Fine Gael and Sinn Féin neck and neck on 28 per cent, with Fáil on 17 per cent.
The Labour Party – under the new leadership of Alan Kelly – is up to five per cent.
Despite other polls showing negligible support for Aontú, Peadar Tóibín’s party came in at four per cent for the second successive Irish Mail On Sunday poll.
“This is no small thing,” the TD tweeted on Sunday. “In two years we are out-polling parties such as Greens & Pb4P.”
The poll had both the Green Party and Solidarity-People Before Profit on three per cent. Social Democrats held at five per cent, with independents and others are slipping to eight per cent.
Meanwhile, the public appetite for a coronavirus vaccine has rocketed, with 86 per cent now saying they will take it, up 16 percentage points from November.
But support for the Irish Government’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis continues to slide, with 51 per cent responding ‘no’ when asked ‘are you confident in the current government’s ability to tackle the pandemic?’ That is an eight per cent rise from November.
Public support remains very high for the Republic’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan, scoring 7.1 out of 10. Faith in Micheál Martin slipped 0.5 to 3.9, with Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald unchanged at 4.5.
The Republic’s health minister Stephen Donnelly came in with a much poor rating of 3.2 out of 10.
