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29th Sep 2023

Mary Lou McDonald is the most popular choice to be next Taoiseach, new poll finds

Stephen Porzio

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The findings of the poll are said to suggest that “there is a strong mood for change in the country”.

A new poll has found that Mary Lou McDonald is currently the most popular choice to become the next Taoiseach.

As part of The Irish Times/Ipsos opinion poll, people were asked who they would prefer to see as the head of the Irish government following the next election.

According to The Irish Times, 32% of respondents went with the Sinn Féin leader, while Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar each received 18% of the votes.

20% of respondents, meanwhile, selected none of the above.

The poll – which the paper said suggests that “there is a strong mood for change in the country” – also found that four out of 10 voters would like to see Sinn Féin be a part of the next Irish government.

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Only 18% said they wanted Leo Varadkar to be Taoiseach after the next election, compared to Mary Lou McDonald’s 32%

25% of respondents said they wanted “a government led by Sinn Féin without either Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael,” while 11% favoured a Sinn Féin-Fianna Fáil Coalition and 6% desired a Sinn Féin-Fine Gael government.

In contrast, 27% stated that they would like to see a continuation of the current Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael-Green Coalition.

This was as 17% of voters opted for none of these options.

The Irish Times noted too that though Sinn Féin was found to be the most popular choice for government, it was also tied with the Greens as being the party that most voters did not want to see in power.

31% of respondents said they did not want Sinn Féin in the next government, with the Greens racking up a similar percentage of the poll vote.

24% also stated they did not want to see Fine Gael in the government, while 23% said the same about Fianna Fáil.

For more of The Irish Times/Ipsos opinion poll findings, visit the paper’s website right here.

Main image via Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

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