Days before Ireland votes in a general election at the end of the week, new polling shows perennial outside Sinn Fein has steadily increased and now tops polls of the voters' preference.

An Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI election poll shows that Sinn Fein is now the clear leader at 25 percent.  Support for Fianna Fail is at 23 percent, while the party of Prime Minister Leo Varadkar - Fine Gael - was at 20 percent.  These results were inline with a Business Post/Red C poll released a day earlier.  Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are both center-right parties which have both declared and they will not enter into a coalition with Sinn Fein because of its historical alliance with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Left-wing economic policies.

But for the first time in a long time, the polling means that Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald will take part in the last televised debate on Tuesday night on national broadcaster RTe, preceding the election on 8 February.  Ms. McDonald has already said that if Sinn Fein joins a government in Dublin, the party will immediately demand the government start planning for a referendum on the unification of Ireland, which according to the Good Friday Peace Accords must be held within five years.  

In all likelihood, Sinn Fein will not get the super majority it needs - the party isn't even running candidates in all constituencies - and Fianna Fail and Fine Gael will form a coalition, keeping Ireland on its current course and probably give Leo Varadkar a third successive term as Taoiseach.  But for the moment, the debate will give Sinn Fein a vanue to talk about its policies that are resonating more and more with younger voters:  Expanding health care with free GP visits; building 100,000 new units of council housing; longer maternity/paternity leave; and more.