A major development just a week out from 8 February.

Now just seven days away from the general election, a new opinion poll has seen Sinn Féin leapfrog Fine Gael into second place. The poll, which was conducted by The Times Ireland, reckons that Mary Lou McDonald’s party is the second most popular, at 21 per cent, followed by Fine Gael on 19 per cent. Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil appear to be in pole position, with 23 per cent of the public's support, according to the poll. Eamon Ryan's Green Party were at 10 per cent. The Social Democrats, Labour and Solidarity-People before Profit are each on 5% ahead of the crucial day next Saturday. The survey conducted by The Times saw 1,000 Irish people asked about which way they plan on voting, with a margin of error of 3 per cent. Each party will continue their campaign trail through the weekend, with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar posting a video on his Twitter page featuring each member of his team stating that they would under no circumstances go into government with Sinn Féin. The video has already gathered quite the response on social media. https://twitter.com/LeoVaradkar/status/1223526810773852161?s=20