Leo Varadkar marching at the Gay Pride Parade in Dublin. Sam Boal Sam Boal

FINE GAEL HAS seen a bounce in the polls with Leo Varadkar as its new leader.

The first poll since the new Taoiseach took office gives the party a boost of six percentage points, to 31%.

The Irish Daily Mail/Ireland Thinks poll shows Fianna Fáil trailing five points behind Fine Gael, at 26%, down one percent. Independents are down four points to 11%, Sinn Féin is down one point to 16% and Labour’s support is up two points to seven percent.

The Green Party are up one point to four percent, with Social Democrats down two points to two percent and Solidarity-ABP down one point to two percent.

Irish Daily Mail/Irish Thinks poll results Ireland Thinks Ireland Thinks

Fine Gael support is now at its highest level since the 2011 general election.

The latest survey has also established that if the poll were reflected on polling day, Fine Gael would gain seven seats in the next election, bringing their total to 57 seats.

However, it should be noted that this poll of 1,300 adults was conducted between Monday 12 June until Friday 16 June – just as the controversy of the appointment of the former Attorney General Maire Whelan to the Court of Appeal kicked off.

The survey was also taken prior to Varadkar’s junior ministers announcement, for which he was criticised for his lack of gender balance in his ministry appointments.

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