Mary Lou McDonald Favourite To Become The Next Taoiseach

Mary Lou McDonald has seen a new spike in support to become the Taoiseach

after the next election after her odds were trimmed into the lowest mark they ever been.

A new Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll has seen approval ratings for the main party leaders fall since June following the ‘Golfgate’ scandal as well as the Leaving Cert fiasco and questions over the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s approval rating is down 7% at 39%, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar is at 65% (down 10 %) and Green Party leader Eamonn Ryan is down 13% at 27%. Mary Lou McDonald also suffered a 3% drop to 46%, but punters are turning to the leader of the biggest opposition party to take over as Taoiseach.

The Sinn Féin leader is now the 11/8 joint favourite after her odds were clipped in from 13/8.

Fine Gael earned the highest approval rating in the latest poll but their support fell by two points to 35%, while Sinn Féin went up four points to 29% from the previous such poll in June.

This has resulted in Sinn Féin being backed into the Even money favourite from 11/10 to be the party who win the most seats at the next general election.

*Odds correct at time of publication.