Ireland's governing coalition is set to fall far short of the majority needed for a second term following Friday's election, according to an exit poll for the Irish Times newspaper.

Support for Prime Minister Enda Kenny's Fine Gael party slumped to 26.1 percent, compared to 36.1 in the previous election in 2011, while backing for junior coalition partners Labour plummeted to 7.8 percent from 19.5 percent, according to the poll conducted by Ipsos, MRBI.

"If the final result is close to the exit poll predictions, the Fine Gael/Labour coalition will be far short of the numbers required to form a majority government," the Irish Times wrote.