SUPPORT FOR INDEPENDENTS has fallen compared to their general election outcome, a new opinion poll suggests.

Polling by Ireland Thinks for the Sunday Independent found that 8.8% of people said they would give their first preference to an Independent or minor party, a drop of 6.7 percentage points since the November election.

It’s by far the most significant drop in post-election support felt by any political group in the poll.

Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin all saw a boost in support in this poll, as did the Social Democrats, Aontú and Independent Ireland.

Fianna Fáil came out on top with 23.8% (+1.9), followed closely by Fine Gael on 22.3% (+1.5). Sinn Féin received 19.3% (+0.3) of indicated first-preferences in the opinion poll.

Another 7.9% of respondents said they would give their first preference vote to a the Social Democrats, a boost of 2.5 points since the election – the largest in the poll.

Aontú was on 5.3% (+1.4) and Independent Ireland was on 4.9% (+1.3).

However, Labour, the Green Party and People Before Profit all saw a slight drop in support in the poll compared to their election results – though by a much smaller proportion than the hit taken by “Independents and Others”.

Of those polled, 3.8% said they would give their first preference to Labour (-0.9), 2.3% to the Greens (-0.7) and 2.2% to People Before Profit (-0.6).

The notable drop in support for Independents comes as government formation talks appear to be on track to reach an agreement between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Regional Independents.

There have been some rumblings about the inclusion of Tipperary North TD Michael Lowry in the talks as part of the Regional Group after An Garda Síochána confirmed that a file had been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) relating to the findings of the Moriarty Tribunal.

The Tribunal was established in 1997 to examine payments to former Taoiseach Charles Haughey and Lowry, a former Fine Gael Minister for Communications. It concluded that Lowry “secured the winning” of the State’s second mobile phone licence for Denis O’Brien’s company, Esat Digifone. Lowry and O’Brien have repeatedly disputed the findings.

The Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll found 63% of people polled disagreed with Lowry being part of the talks. 24% agreed with his involvement and 13% were unsure.

More broadly, 58% of respondents said the next Programme for Government should not include deals with Independents trying prioritise their own specific constituencies.