Social Democrats’ co-leaders expected to stand down

The two co-leaders of the Social Democrats, Roisin Shortall and Catherine Murphy, are expected to step aside, the PA news agency understands.

The current health minister Stephen Donnelly had also served as co-leader of the party before quitting to become an independent in September 2016 and joining Fianna Fail months later.

The Social Democrats currently have six TDs in the Dail, and gathered around 2.9% of first preference votes in the 2020 general election.

They won a similar amount of first preference votes in the local elections.

The latest opinion polls put the party at around 4%.