FINE GAEL LEADS the way as the most popular party in the country according to the latest opinion poll.

Housing remains comfortably the most important issue for voters, although there have been jumps in the number of people listing the rise of the far-right and immigration as concerns in the latest Ireland Thinks poll published in the Sunday Independent.

The party standings is good news for Simon Harris as Fine Gael, although unchanged, sit on 24%, putting them ahead of Fianna Fáil on 20% and Sinn Féin on 19%.

There was a slight boost for Mary Lou McDonald’s party as its polling is a 1% increase on figures suggested last month in the aftermath of the local elections. Fianna Fáil is also unchanged on its current number.

Roderic O’Gorman hasn’t seen much change in the Green Party’s fortunes since taking over as leader – they remain unchanged on 4%.

The Independents/Others grouping has fallen back by 2 to 18%.

Elsewhere, Social Democrats increased to 5% (+1), Labour to 4% (+1) while Aontú were unchanged on 4%.

Housing policy

Sinn Féin’s numbers remaining mostly static may come as disappointing to McDonald as this week saw it launch a housing policy designed to cap house prices at around €300,000. It comes with the condition that buyers must sell for lower than the prevailing market price if selling the property in future.

Voters were split on the policy. Two in five supported the proposal (41pc) and 39pc were against it. Another 20% said they were unsure.

Meanwhile, almost three-quarters of the public believe the Government should house refugees and asylum-seekers in more affluent parts of the country.

This followed a call also by the Sinn Féin leader as part of the party’s attempt to launch a refreshed immigration document. Just 7pc of those polled disagreed with the idea, with 21pc unsure.

Top issues for voters

Housing remains the main issue on voters’ minds with 48% saying it was the main political topic on their mind.

This was a 10% drop from last month, coming in the days following the violent scenes seen in Coolock in Dublin outside a building earmarked to house asylum seekers.

The main issues that gained in priority for voters were the rise of the far-right – doubling to 20% – and immigration which increased by 6% to 35%.