Holly Cairns now the most popular party leader, poll finds
Social Democrats leader 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 this week, the same period in which the eviction ban lapsed.
The latest poll puts Ms Cairns' approval rating at 45 per cent – two points higher than Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and Tánaiste Micheál Martin, both of whom hold a 43 per cent rating.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's rating has dropped two points to 38 per cent and Labour's Ivana Bacik's rating is unchanged at 32 per cent.
Aontú’s Peadar Tóibín's approval rating slid by one point to 28 per cent, while Green Party leader Eamon Ryan was the least popular party leader with 22 per cent, 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 per cent in the last four weeks, bringing its overall support to 31 per cent.
With 22 per cent 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 per cent, while the Social Democrats support also fell by 2 percentage points to 7 per cent.
Support for the Green Party remained unchanged at 4 per cent, Labour and Aontú both stayed at 3 per cent support, while People Before Profit/Solidarity increased its polling score by one point to 3 per cent.
Support for Independents and others was also unchanged at 10 per cent.
The margin of error for the latest poll is +/- 3 per cent.
