A NEW POLL shows that support for Sinn Féin is up, with the party at its highest level of support in over a year.

That’s according to the latest Sunday Business Post/Red poll, which shows that Sinn Féin’s support is up 5 points to 19%. Meanwhile, AAA-PBP’s support is up two points to 6%.

Last week, a poll published in the Sunday Independent showed that Fine Gael’s support had dipped by four points since October.

According to this latest poll, Fianna Fáil is now down one point to 26%, while Fine Gael is still at 24%. Fianna Fáil remains the party with the greatest support in the country.

Labour is down one point, to 4%, the Independent Alliance stays at 3%, the Soc Dems are down one point to 3%, and the Green Party (4%) and Renua (1%) also have seen no change.

Fine Gael has been at the centre of weeks of speculation about the future of its leader and Taoiseach Enda Kenny recently – resulting in a crunch meeting last Wednesday. After facing pressure to go in the wake of his handling of the Garda whistleblower revelations, Kenny told parliamentary party members that he will deal with the issue of his leadership after he returns from his St Patrick’s Day visit to the USA.

The meeting led to a sense of relative calm after weeks of speculation. But that doesn’t mean that everything’s A-OK in Leinster House.

Earlier today, Fianna Fáil’s Robert Troy told Claire Byrne on RTÉ Radio 1 that “there is a sense of dis-functionality, instability and incoherence at the very heart of government”. Meanwhile, AAA-PBP TD for Dublin South Central, Brid Smith, said on the same show that the leadership contest “has been an absolute distraction from very serious issues”.

The Red C poll of around 1,000 adult took place between Monday and Thursday of last week.