DUBLIN (AFP) -- Satisfaction with Ireland’s ruling coalition has plummeted to a record low of 10 percent ahead of elections next month, and an EU referendum later in the year, an opinion poll showed on Friday.

The Irish Times/TNS mrbi poll shows a surge in support to 38 percent for the main Fine Gael opposition party with Prime Minister Brian Cowen’s Fianna Fail party at 21 percent, ahead of a triple set of ballots in June.
The poll rating is the highest level of support for Fine Gael for a quarter of a century and the lowest ever rating for Fianna Fail since The Irish Times began polling in 1982.
The newspaper says the continuing slide in the satisfaction rating of the government is “ominous” for the future prospects of the Fianna Fail/Green party coalition.
“A massive 86 percent of the voters are now dissatisfied with the performance of the government and that figure rises to 89 percent in Dublin. The better-off AB voters are the most unhappy of all.”
The poll shows 63 percent of Fianna Fail supporters and 93 percent of Green party supporters are dissatisfied with the government’s performance.
Ireland, which became known as the Celtic Tiger for its economic boom over most of the past decade, was the first eurozone country to go into recession and last month parliament approved an emergency austerity budget.
On June 5 Ireland will vote in the European Parliament and local elections, and in two by-elections in Dublin.
Later in the year Dublin is expected to hold a second referendum on the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty, which has been in limbo since Irish voters rejected it in a first vote last June.
The Irish Times poll was conducted over three days this week among a representative sample of 2,000 voters in face-to-face interviews at 200 sampling points in all 43 constituencies. The margin of error was two percent.