Sinn Fein calls on government to stop 'facilitating' the DUP's Stormont boycott 'merry-go-round' as new polling reveals support for republican party is flagging

The comments from senior Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty came ahead of a crunch meeting of the DUP's 130-strong party executive on Monday evening to discuss a potential deal with the Government that could see devolution resurrected in Belfast.

They also come at a time when fresh polling reveals that the republican party’s pull with voters in the Republic is slackening.

A survey of voter intentions by the firm Red C, published in The Business Post on Sunday, has Sinn Fein at 25% – a fall of four points from the 29% it attracted in the last major poll at the end of November.

The results mark a further drop from the 32% support the party achieved in a poll in October.

However, their suggested slump in support does not appear to have been prompted by a rise in backing for government parties.

Support for Fine Gael remains at 20%, unchanged from November’s poll, while Fianna Fail is up one point to 17%.

The largest increase recorded in the latest poll is for independent TDs, with that grouping up two points to 15%.

Sinn Fein finance spokesman Pearse Doherty insisted his party was listening to people on the ground.

“Look, every political party wants to see opinion polls and their party support going up, and I think the previous poll from another newspaper showed us up a couple of points, so we will take this all in the round,” he told RTE’s The Week in Politics programme at the weekend.

Meanwhile Mr Doherty said the time had come for the DUP to make a decision on restoring the Northern Irish government.

"We've been here so many times, there's been so many false dawns when it comes to the DUP, and the DUP really need to accept the fact that people in the Assembly election (in May 2022) voted for change and the dynamics are changing and have changed in the north," he told RTE.

"We have to get off this endless merry-go-round.

"The British government needs to stop facilitating them.”