SUPPORT FOR SINN Féin has risen again according to the latest opinion poll in this year’s general election.

The Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll, published this evening, put the party on 25%, two points ahead of its nearest rival Fianna Fáil, which polled at 23%.

Fine Gael trailed in third on 20%, followed by the Green Party (8%) and Labour (4%), Solidarity-People Before Profit (2%), the Social Democrats (2%), Independents4Change (1%), the Independent Alliance (1%), Aontú (1%), and non-party Independents (10%).

It was also a good poll for Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald personally, as she jumped to a 41% approval rating, leading Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin who were both on 30%.

The poll was carried out face to face, among 1,200 adults at 120 locations in all constituencies on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of last week . The margin of error is estimated at plus or minus 2.8%.

It comes a day after a Business Post/Red C poll put Sinn Féin in joint first place alongside Fianna Fáil. 

Despite recent opinion polls revealing that Sinn Féin is continuing to perform well, both leaders of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have ruled out going into coalition with Mary Lou McDonald.

Earlier, RTÉ announced a reverse of its stance on tomorrow’s Prime Time debate, saying that McDonald would be invited to take part in the head-to-head that was initially planned to be between Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar only.