Sinn Féin has emerged as the most popular political party just five days before the General Election, according to a new opinion poll.
The Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll has the party holding a two-point lead ahead of its closest rival with 25% of support.
This is the first poll which has placed Sinn Féin in the top spot.
The party is up four points compared to the Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll at the beginning of the campaign in January.
Fianna Fáil is in second place with 23%, down two points, while Fine Gael is in third with 20%, down three points.
There was no change for the Green Party who is on 8%, while Labour is down one to 4% and the Independents and small parties are up two points to 20%.
When it comes to party leaders, satisfaction with Mary Lou McDonald is up seven points to 41%.
Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar are both on 30% after seeing their popularity slip by three points and five points respectively.
However, Mr Martin is the top choice to be Taoiseach at 24%, with Mr Varadkar at 23% and Ms McDonald at 20%.
The survey was conducted over Thursday, Friday and Saturday of last week among 1,200 voters.
The margin of error is 2.8%.
Two polls released at the weekend revealed that Sinn Féin was surging in popularity.
An opinion poll released yesterday revealed that the party was neck and neck with Fianna Fáil to win the General Election.
The Red C poll for the Business Post had Sinn Féin up five points to 24% support - tied with Fianna Fáil and three ahead of Fine Gael.
On Saturday, a survey released by The Times Ireland and Panelbase found that Sinn Féin had overtaken Fine Gael to become the second most popular party.
This evening's poll comes as Ms McDonald confirmed that she will participate in RTÉ's Prime Time debate tomorrow night.
The broadcaster said this afternoon that she has been asked to join the leader of Fine Gael, Leo Varadkar, and Fianna Fáil's Micheál Martin.
