Updated on Sunday, June 07, 2009, 09:00 IST

Dublin, June 07: Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen's party suffered a vote collapse in two parliamentary by-elections and faces heavy losses in local councils, exit polls and first results have showed.

Cowen's centrist Fianna Fail party had not been expected to win either of the by-elections in the Irish capital Dublin, but the scale of the drubbing was unexpected.

Enda Kenny, leader of the main opposition Fine Gael party which won the seat of Dublin South, said Cowen's government was no longer credible and said he would table a motion of no-confidence in him in parliament next week.

Cowen's popularity has plummeted since Ireland's once-vaunted "Celtic Tiger" economy sunk into recession and the government responded by upping taxes and cutting services.

An exit poll for public broadcaster RTE and a newspaper suggested that Fianna Fail was also set to suffer a backlash from angry voters in the battle for over 1,600 local council seats.

Friday's polls, in which voters also chose 12 members of the European Parliament, were Cowen's first electoral test since lawmakers voted by 88 to 76 for him to succeed veteran prime minister Bertie Ahern in May 2008.

Cowen described the results as "disappointing" but said his two-party coalition would serve out its five-year term.

"It is fair to say we have had a disappointing result. It has been a poor result by our standards," he told RTE.

Bureau Report