The pressure on Micheál Martin to name a departure date is set to ramp up in the wake of a new poll revealing just 12% of voters believe he should lead Fianna Fáil into the next election.

A further 4% believe Mr Martin should remain in power indefinitely.

The Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll reveals 41% of voters believe Mr Martin should go now, with 42% saying he should wait until the transfer of power next November that will see Fine Gael taking over the Taoiseach’s role.

The poll also reveals that Fianna Fáil, at 16% (down one point), is beginning to fall away from the new ‘big two’ of Fine Gael and Sinn Féin, who are neck and neck at 20%. Sinn Féin has grown by one percentage point, while Fine Gael is unchanged. One political analyst noted: ‘It is a very attractive position for Simon Harris, Fine Gael emerging as the defenders of the middle class against the Sinn Féin hordes and the Social Democrats at 10% (down two points) on standby as partners.’

The poll results are also set to generate further tensions in Labour as Ivana Bacik’s party remains ‘detached from the herd’ at 3% One source noted: ‘It’s pretty grim down there in Dublin Bay South. Labour are in a battle to actually survive with the Greens, also on 3%, and People Before Profit at 2%.

‘On these figures we [Labour] are just sweepers for the Social Democrats. We would be lucky to get five TDs across the line. We are completely detached from the herd. We have half the support of those Aontú and Independent pro-life Rural Deplorables vote.

We are just one point away from a Renua-style annihilation.’

In the Ireland Thinks poll, Aontú was up one point to 7%, while Independent Ireland remains unchanged at 7%. Independents and Others were up one to 12%. One Fianna Fáil source dolefully observed: ‘We are starting to get like one of those John B Keane plays about the old farmer who won’t get married or give up “the land, the land” to his younger son.

‘It’s like The Field and that ends with death everywhere, though the Bull survives.’ Another Fianna Fáil figure noted: ‘He [Micheál] is swanning around the capitals of Europe expecting us to praise him for existing and the farm is on fire. He’s like one of those Ascendancy landlords who used to be around only once or twice a year and spent the rest of their time in the House of Lords.’

The uneasy summer mood in Fianna Fáil is unlikely to be eased by the result of the public approval ratings, in which Jim O’Callaghan, despite not being the leader of the party, tops the pile at 42%.

The public approval rating of Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns is down two points to 38%, with Mr Martin, despite the high-profile EU presidency commencing, remaining at 35%.

Fine Gael leader Simon Harris’s rating is up a point to 34%, Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald remains on 30%, and Labour leader Ms Bacik is trailing back in sixth place at 28%.