The Green Party voted against the report of the Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services.

The party said the use of the Water Services Act 2007 to prevent wastage is a "blunt and impractical approach".

Senator Grace O'Sullivan voted against the report of the committee due to Fianna Fáil's insertion of the Water Services Act 2007 to penalise those who use water excessively.

She said: "I welcome Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael's conversion to the Green Party's consistent line on water – that it is a public good that requires long term funding certainty and dedicated attention, if we are to conserve and preserve it into the future.

"However, I was unable to support the report – the ending of wide-scale metering will lower our ability to locate leaks and plan for future need.

"However there is also much to welcome – public ownership of the water system, which the Green Party was the first to propose, will be enshrined in the constitution. Public health and oversight will be better served by new structures and there are a number of measures to promote conservation of this most precious resource.

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"It's crucial we now move to place our public water system on a path to sustainable long term health. The work of this committee has been riven with populism from those seeking political gain, and the best interests of the Irish people have sometimes lost out, but we now need to move forward to secure a modern and safe water system for future generations."

Labour Party representative on the Water Committee, Jan O'Sullivan, said the she wouyld not support the final report "on the basis that it proposes to use the criminal law to penalise those who excessively waste water instead of simply charging them".

She said: "We now face the real possibility that people will be dragged through the courts for excess use of water. It is also likely that Ireland may face EU fines."

"There are recommendations in the Report that we do support although parts of it are by design ambiguous to meet the political needs of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

"Labour from the beginning advocated that a referendum should be held to ensure that our water infrastructure remains in public ownership forever.

"We also advocated that those who complied with the law should not be disadvantaged, and all who paid their charges should be refunded in full. That too is now to happen.

"No doubt this farce will continue to develop once the legislative proposals are brought before the Oireachtas."

(CD/MH)