Poll boost for Fine Gael after Simon Harris takes over as Taoiseach

Tomas Doherty

Fine Gael has seen a rise in support following the election of Simon Harris as Taoiseach, a poll has found.

Support for the party has jumped by three points since the last poll in March to reach 20 per cent, according to the Sunday Times/Opinions poll.

Mr Harris became the country's youngest ever Taoiseach on April 9th after the surprise resignation of Leo Varadkar as Fine Gael leader one month ago.

However, Sinn Féin is still the most popular party, with support up one point in the poll to 27 per cent.

Fianna Fáil is unchanged on 16 per cent, while the Green Party is up one point to 6 per cent.

Independents and others are down one to 16 per cent, while the Social Democrats are down three points to 4 per cent.

Labour and Solidarity-People Before Profit are both unchanged at 5 per cent and 3 per cent respectively. Support for Aontú is down one point to 3 per cent.

The poll was carried out between April 12th and 17th, covering the first days of Harris's premiership, with a sample size of 1,100 people interviewed online.