Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on the Environment Brian Stanley TD has claimed that Minister Phil Hogan's admission that people might pay up to €500 in water charges makes a mockery of the €240 average charge per household announced by the Government.

He also said that the average charge itself will be far more than €240 after 2016, once subsidies come to an end, and Irish Water passes on the full cost to consumers.

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Deputy Stanley said: "The Minister is only admitting to the vastly higher charges that will be paid by many households because people themselves have been doing their own calculations. In any event, as I said, any average figure will encompass a range of low to high. We will also not even know the real level of charges until the Energy Regulator makes his report in August.

"It is my belief that eventually the vast majority of households will be paying a much higher water charge than €240."

(CD/MH)