Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore has vowed to remain leader of Labour - even if the party's popularity continues to plummet.

Amid fallout from opinion polls showing support for the junior coalition party has fallen to its lowest level in more than a quarter of a century, the Minister for Foreign Affairs said he was going nowhere and hoped to remain at the helm into the next election.

"I intend to complete my term as leader of the Labour Party," Mr Gilmore said.

"I have a job to do. That job is to lead my party in Government. To do a job which is about rescuing the country from the disaster when we came into office, getting the economy to recover and then contesting the next election on the basis of that achievement and on the basis of the programme we put forward for the next Dail."

An Irish Times opinion poll revealed support for Labour has fallen to 6% - a 3% drop from the last survey in June.

It represents the lowest poll positioning for Labour since November 1987, when the party had just emerged from a five-year partnership with Fine Gael.

PA Media