SINN FÉIN HAS held its position as the most popular party in the country as all government parties lose support, according to a poll released today by the Sunday Independent.

The opposition party is up 1% to 36%, with Fine Gael falling by a percentage point to 21%.

Fianna Fáil is also down 1% to 16%, while coalition partner the Green Party fell from 4% to just 2%.

This means that Sinn Féin lags just behind the next two biggest parties combined.

57% of respondents said that they believe Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald will be the next Taoiseach, 18% predict Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar and 6% expecting Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin while 19% were unsure.

The Ireland Thinks poll also found that support for People Before Profit rose by 1% to 5%, and the Social Democrats at 4%, Aontú and Labour at 3% each were unchanged.

Independents were at 11%, up two points from last month’s poll.

The most popular makeup of a new government remains a Sinn Féin-led government including Labour, the Social Democrats and the Greens, according to 42% of respondents, down 3%.

Another Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil-Green Party government, had the support of 36% of respondents, a drop from 40% last month.

Mary Lou McDonald is currently on a US visit to meet with political and business leaders in California.

On Wednesday McDonald will give a keynote address at the University of San Francisco on Wednesday evening which deals with the topic of  “A Decade of Opportunity: Building a New and United Ireland”.