Mary Lou McDonald and Micheál Martin
Support for Sinn Féin forming a historic coalition government with Fianna Fáil has grown as political parties begin their preparations for the next general election.
In the wake of this week’s redrawing of the electoral map to add 14 new TDs to the next Dáil, the latest Ireland Thinks poll for the Sunday Independent has found support for a groundbreaking alliance between Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil is increasing.
In a forced choice, 42pc of voters (down one) opted for a Sinn Féin-led government excluding both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil ahead of 40pc who opted for the re-election of the current government (down one).
In another forced choice, 42pc of those polled opted for a Sinn Féin-Fianna Fáil government, up three percentage points on last month, ahead of 38pc who opted for the re-election of the current Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil-Green coalition, up two on last month.
Political parties are now kickstarting their general election preparations after the Electoral Commission published its boundary review report this week which recommended the creation of four new constituencies and a total of 174 seats in the next Dáil.
It means that any government will need to have at least 87 seats (when the Ceann Comhraile is excluded) in order to have a Dáil majority after the next general election, which is expected late next year or else early in 2025.
Ireland Thinks Poll – State of the Parties
In the state of the parties, Sinn Féin remains the most popular party in the country though it has dropped by one percentage point to 33pc, while Fianna Fáil is unchanged on 18pc.
There is good news for Fine Gael which is up two points to 21pc but the Green Party has dropped three points to 2pc in what will be a major concern from leader Eamon Ryan whose personal popularity is also plummeting.
Elsewhere, the Social Democrats are up one point to 6pc, Labour is down one point to 3pc, Solidarity-People Before Profit is unchanged on 3pc and Aontú is also unchanged on 2pc.
Independents and others are down one to 10pc.
The poll was taken on Thursday and Friday of this week among a sample size of 1,228 people and the margin of error is +/- 2.9pc.
