Sinn Féin has hit out at Minister for State, Sean Canney, after he accused the party of wanting to discriminate against people in group water schemes.

Minister Canney made the comments on Morning Ireland.

However, Sinn Féin's spokesman on agriculture, Martin Kenny TD, said "nothing could be further from the truth".

He said: "At local protests against Irish Water in my constituency, members of group water schemes were there in strength to oppose the privatisation of water supply. This is another attempt to create an urban-rural divide but it will fail, like the attempt to introduce water charges has failed.

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"Our alternative budget for 2017 first of all allocated €200 million towards improving infrastructure and then allocated another €1.5 million towards increasing the subsidy to group water customers. This was a figure formulated by the Department of Finance to cover this expense.

"The new Oireachtas Water Committee will have to make decisions about the details of various aspects of the supply of water to rural households, but Sinn Féin, like the expert group report, agrees that equity must be at the core of water supply to domestic consumers."

(CD/LM)