Taoiseach Enda Kenny has blamed the Coalition’s poor showing in the latest Irish Times/MRBI poll on the "tough decisions" the Government has been forced to make since coming to power.
The poll indicated a sharp decline in the Government’s satisfaction rating as a well as significant drop support for both Fine Gael and Labour.
Satisfaction with the Government dropped 14 points to 23 per cent since the last poll in October, while support for Fine Gael slipped three points to 33 per cent.
The Labour Party has been particularly hard hit, seeing its support plummet six points to 13 per cent while Sinn Féin has risen to 21 per cent (up six points), its highest rating ever in an Irish Times poll.
Mr Kenny said public satisfaction may have dropped due to tough decisions the Government has been forced to make.
“I acknowledge of course that people have difficulties in adjusting to changes that have to be made,” he said. “But the fact we are spending €18 million more than we are taking in is a problem that will not go away and that has to be faced.”
Mr Kenny said the Government had tried very hard to return stability to the economy, through prioritising growth and job creation.
The drop in the Government’s satisfaction rating, after just a year in office, is an ominous development given the difficult decisions it will have to implement over the next three years.
The poll also indicated support for Fianna Fáil has dropped one point to 14 per cent while the Green Party has seen its support rise one point to 2 per cent with Independents/Others on 17 per cent (up three points).
Sinn Féin said it was not taking its rise in popularity for granted, despite scoring its highest ever rating in a public satisfaction poll.
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said the poll was not necessarily a success for his party and insisted the most important message from the results was that people are hurting as a result of the Government’s bad decisions.
“This isn’t a popularity contest,” said Mr Adams. “This is about reading the message and the message very simply is that austerity doesn’t work.” He criticised Fine Gael and Labour for making the wrong political choices and accused them of adopting Fianna Fáil policies, particularly in relation to its stance on Europe and commitment to the stability treaty.
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said the results were a measure of how difficult the Government's job has been.
"We are a long way from a general election," said Mr Gilmore.
"It's a measure of how difficult a job this government has to do.What we have to do is to be focused on this job. This is is a time for courage and we have to have the courage to stick to the task," he said.
Fianna Fáil's Dara Calleary said the party was not disappointed with the poll as it had a long-term plan which it was sticking to.
"Sinn Fein today are where the Labour Party were in the last Dáil. They are responding to every problem with a headline. They are getting great support but it's temporary.Our solution is to come up with plans that are real. What we will do is come up to solution."
Labour’s Pat Rabbitte said the results were “scarcely surprising” given the painful decisions that were being imposed on people. “This has been a prolonged, acute slump,” Mr Rabbitte told The Irish Times. “Listening to some commentators one gets the impression that’s once you’ve got a new government all you had to do was wait for automatic transformation. We got a new Government but we didn’t get a new economy.
“The crippling deficiencies in the economy we’ve inherited will not be turned around overnight,” he said.
On the rise in support for Sinn Féin, Mr Rabbitte said that party had calculated that “the worse the economic circumstances become the better for Sinn Féin,” adding: “It is probably a clever strategy for Sinn Féin but not a very clever strategy for the country.”
The Minister insisted the results of the poll would not be reflected in a real electoral contest. “It’s a barometer the unfortunate low standing in which politics is held as result of the crash and the sheer scale of the reckless mismanagement by the previous government,” he said.
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin said the only poll that matters was the one that elected us to Government less14 months ago “and gave us a task of fixing a very broken economy”.
“Nobody was under any illusion when overwhelmingly the Labour delegates voted to go into that Government, that we would have a difficult road to climb.”
“But at the end of this road I think people will reward the parties that fixed the country that took the courageous decisions and did what was right by the people of Ireland.”
The poll was conducted on Monday and Tuesday at the height of the controversy over the planned introduction of water meters.
It was undertaken among a representative sample of 1,000 voters aged 18 and over, in face-to-face interviews at 100 sampling points in all 43 constituencies.
The margin of error is plus or minus 3 per cent.
The core vote for the parties compared with the last Irish Times poll was: Fine Gael, 25 per cent (down four points); Labour, 10 per cent (down five points); Fianna Fáil, 11 per cent (down one point); Sinn Féin, 15 per cent (up two points); Green Party, 1 per cent (no change); Independents/Others, 13 per cent (up two points); and undecided voters, 25 per cent (up six points).