DUBLIN, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen's fragile majority in parliament is in danger of shrinking to two seats after another member of parliament threatened to withdraw support from the fast-sinking coalition.
Cowen, who needs votes from his junior coalition partners the Greens, independents and some dissidents in his own party to push through another austerity budget in December, received a blow on Friday when one independent withdrew his support.
A colleague in his own Fianna Fail party, Mattie McGrath told the Sunday Business Post, he would not support the government unless hospital cuts in his southern constituency were reversed.
"The reconfiguration (of hospital services) has to be taken off the table, that’s my baseline," McGrath, who voted against the government for the first time in June, told the newspaper, according to an advance release on Saturday.
"The hospital is a core issue for me. It’s sacrosanct as far as I’m concerned," he said.
Cowen already knows his government can scarcely afford any further defections if it hopes to pass the budget, which will include at least 3 billion euros of savings to tackle the worst budget deficit in the euro zone.
Most analysts believe the government is unlikely to survive to the end of its term in 2012.
Recent opinion polls have suggested that a new coalition of the opposition centre-right Fine Gael and centre-left Labour parties will sweep to power.
A new Sunday Business Post/Red C poll had Fine Gael on 31 percent, down two points from June, while Labour, who led in a separate poll on Thursday, dropped four to 23 percent.
The survey, carried out before an unexpected fall in second quarter GDP on Thursday, but following a controversy over a radio interview Cowen conducted after partying late with colleagues, had support for Fianna Fail steady at 24 percent.
Only 19 percent of those questioned said they had confidence in Cowen as prime minister.
"While the Fianna Fail vote is stable, the party is on course for by far the worst electoral result in its history, with perhaps 30 seats in danger," the Sunday Business Post said.
