Irish Water has been accused of failing to repair the "massive' level of leaks within the water system.

Sinn Féin spokesperson on the Environment Brian Stanley TD was responding to reports that show 40% of water is expected to be lost through leaks in in 2015.

Deputy Stanley said: "Once again, the basis for establishing Irish water has been exposed as a charade. We were told that the new entity would both prove to be more cost efficient and that it would quickly address the issue of massive leaks within the system.

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"Instead, we now have a situation where the taxpayer has handed over almost €2 billion to Irish Water, with borrowing and further subventions to come, without any improvement. Indeed if anything supply and leaks will become worse due to the ham-fisted manner in which the metering programme is being rolled out."

(CD/IT)