Minister for Foreign Affairs Michéal Martin has today defended Taoiseach Brian Cowen following criticism of last week's Cabinet reshuffle.
A number of Fianna Fáil backbenchers have piled pressure on the Taoiseach by publicly expressing unhappiness with his leadership of the party.
There was also much criticism of Mr Cowen's reshuffle with Kilkenny-based TD John McGuinness openly calling on him to "consider his position” as Taoiseach and party leader.
Following the release of a new survey showing support for Fianna Fáil is continuing to decline, Mr Martin said if the latest opinion polls were repeated in a General Election the party would "take a hammering."
The Red C/Sunday Business Post poll published today shows support for Fianna Fáil is down 3 points to 24 per cent. In addition, the latest survey shows support for the Taoiseach himself has declined greatly.
A poll taken shortly before Mr Cowen took over as leader of Fianna Fáil showed that 72 per cent of voters felt he would make a good Taoiseach. However, the latest survey shows just 27 per cent of voters say they believe he has been a good leader of the country.
According to the latest poll, Fine Gael has moved up one point to 35 per cent while Labour is unchanged at 24 per cent.
Fianna Fáil's coalition partners the Green Party is unchanged at 5 per cent while Sinn Féin and Independents are both up 1 per cent.
Speaking on the Marian Finucane show on RTÉ radio this morning, Mr Martin said the Taoiseach's fall in popularity was partly due to the effects of the global economic downturn.
Separately, Government Chief Whip John Curran also defended Mr Cowen's track record.
"I don't think it's necessarily an issue of the Taoiseach's presentational style. I think perhaps right across Government we have a job to do to communicate more effectively what's happening, " he said.
