Following planned protest marches against water charges, Fianna Fáil said the government's set-up of Irish Water has been a disaster.

The party's spokesperson on Environment, Barry Cowen, accused the firm of causing considerable public anger.

Mr Cowen said: "Every time a Government representative has spoken on Irish Water they have managed to confuse and agitate people more. Fine Gael and Labour are in disarray over Irish Water and desperate attempts to tinker around edges of the problem has turned a bad situation into a complete disaster.

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"It is now time for the Government to take responsibility for this mess, acknowledge the truth of what their colleague Fergus O'Dowd has been saying and admit they got this wrong from the very beginning.

"From an initial position of denying there was an issue, the Fine Gael and Labour spin machine tried to point the finger at the CEO of Irish Water. When this failed, the Government desperately scrambled to come up with half-baked solutions that only served to infuriate the public even further.

"Irish Water was the wrong strategy from day one, dreamed up in opposition by a Fine Gael party enthralled by the privatised water utility model in Britain. The Government started with the wrong plan and went downhill from there."

(CD/JP)