Social Democrats get poll boost after Holly Cairns takes over as leader

Tomas Doherty

The Social Democrats have seen their support rise significantly in the first opinion poll since Holly Cairns took over as leader.

Support for the party has more than doubled to reach 9 per cent, according to the Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll.

Ms Cairns became leader of the Social Democrats on Wednesday, a week after the former co-leaders, Catherine Murphy and Róisín Shortall, announced they would step down to pass on the future of the party to its next generation.

Sinn Féin support is down two points and now stands at 29 per cent.

Fine Gael has dropped one point to 21 per cent, while Fianna Fáil is up one to 19 per cent.

Independents are unchanged on 10 per cent and the Greens are unchanged on 4 per cent.

Aontú and Labour are both down one to 3 per cent, while Solidarity-People Before Profit has dropped one to 2 per cent.

The poll was carried out on Friday with a sample size of 1,162 people. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.9 per cent.