Fine Gael slips to 20% in new opinion poll amid public anger over housing crisis

Fine Gael has dropped to its lowest poll rating in a year and appears to be bearing the brunt of public anger over the housing crisis.

The party has slipped to 20 per cent in the latest opinion poll, dropping two points on last month.

Fianna Fáil is up three percentage points to 19 per cent while Sinn Féin remains by far the largest party but its support remains unchanged at 31 per cent, according to the Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks opinion poll.

The Holly Cairns bounce seems to have faded for the Social Democrats and the party is down to 5 per cent in the poll. It was at 9 per cent last month.

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Ms Cairns remains the most popular party leader, though, with an approval rating of 44 per cent, followed by Micheál Martin with 43 per cent, while Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald is down four points to 39 per cent.

Support for the existing Government and for an alternative Sinn Féin-led one is almost equal. Forty-two per cent of the electorate would prefer a Sinn Féin-led party while 40 per cent want the existing Coalition to continue.

[ Sinn Féin accuses Coalition of ‘washing its hands and abandoning’ mortgage holders ]

The poll is not good news for the smaller parties. The Green Party is down one ercentage point to 3 per cent, Labour is up one point to 4 per cent, as is Solidarity-PBP, while Aontú is down one point to 2 per cent.

Independents and others are up three points to 13 per cent in the Sunday Independent poll, constituting a potentially sizeable bloc when it comes to putting the next government together.

The results of this poll are better for the Government parties than those of the Irish Independent/Behaviour & Attitudes poll in April, which saw Sinn Féin at its highest-ever ratings of 37 per cent, with Fianna Fáil at 21 per cent, Fine Gael at 15 per cent and the Green Party at 6 per cent.

The Irish Times poll in February saw Fine Gael remaining steady at 22 per cent but with Fianna Fáil down to 18 per cent. Sinn Féin was at 35 per cent.