Reality is coming home to roost – support for the Irish government coalition partners Fine Gael and Labor and leaders Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore is crashing in the wake of the austerity budget.

Support for Labor is down half compared to the February election figure, Fine Gael is down seven points and Fianna Fail is rising again.

Satisfaction with Prime Minister Enda Kenny is down 14 per cent to 44 per cent while Labor Party leader Eamon Gilmore drops 11 to 35 per cent.
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The new opinion poll for the Sunday Times newspaper, conducted by the Behaviour and Attitudes market research company, has highlighted the drops.

The paper reports that support for the government has fallen sharply in recent weeks after their first budget since coming to power last February.

Michael Noonan’s Budget last week has not gone down well with the public with satisfaction with the coalition’s performance down a full ten points to 26 per cent from a 36 per cent figure in October.

Both government parties have also suffered in the latest opinion poll.

Support for Fine Gael has dropped seven points to 30 per cent while Labor’s popularity has decreased by four points to just 11 per cent.

Labor’s public support is now less than half its pre-election level in February when it stood at 23 per cent.

Fianna Fail has made the most of the drop in support for the coalition parties with the main opposition party up five points to 20 per cent.

Sinn Féin is also up and has gained two points to 21 per cent with support for Independents and others also up two to 15 per cent.

The poll also reports that financial issues remain the biggest concern for voters after 60 per cent said they were worried about not being able to pay household bills while 43 per cent expressed fears over their mortgage payments.

Almost four in ten people said they were worried about losing their jobs and 55 per cent said they feared somebody else in their household would be made redundant.