Revealed: Poll gives no comfort to Fine Gael under new leader Simon Harris, as Sinn Féin also slips

However, Mr Harris, who will be elected taoiseach on Tuesday, is a marginally more popular a leader than Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald – but he is less popular than Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin and Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns.

With next week’s Cabinet reshuffle fast approaching, the poll shows Government chief whip Hildegarde Naughton (18pc) is the public’s preferred candidate for promotion to a full Cabinet position while 14pc believe Junior Minister Patrick O’Donovan should get a senior ministry.

The polls also shows 13pc believe European Affairs Minister of State Peter Burke should be promoted while 12pc say Minister of State in the Department of Finance Jennifer Carroll MacNeill should become a Cabinet minister.

The same number believe Mayo TD Alan Dillon should be promoted to one of the two Cabinet portfolios available to Mr Harris while another 11pc believe Minister of State Neale Richmond should be senior minister.

However, the majority of people said they did not know or were not interested when asked who Mr Harris should promote; these answers were excluded from the percentages outlined.

Fine Gael’s support increased by two points when Mr Harris first became party leader just over two weeks ago but support has dropped now, down one point to 21pc.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin’s fall in support is continuing as the party drops another point to 26pc. This is its lowest level of support since the Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks opinion poll series began in January 2022.

Fianna Fáil is also down one to 16pc; the Social Democrats remain unchanged on 6pc; Aontú is unchanged on 4pc – but party leader Peadar Tóibín has seen his personal popularity jump significantly.

The Green Party (4pc) and Solidarity-People Before Profit (2pc) are also unchanged, while the Labour Party is down a point to 3pc.

The biggest shift is the continuing rise in support for Independent politicians, who are up three points to 17pc.

Despite Opposition calls for a general election after Leo Varadkar announced he would be stepping down as Taoiseach, the majority of the public (56pc) believe the national vote will be held next year. However, two out of five people (41pc) believe it will be held this year.

The opinion poll was carried out among a sample of 1,334 people on Friday and today, April 5-6, and has a 2.7pc margin of error.