Govt to introduce measures for non-payment of water charges

The Government is to include a number of "compliance measures" in tomorrow's announcement on water charges to deal with those who refuse to pay.

The Cabinet will hold a special meeting to sign off on the plan at 7.30am tomorrow morning.

A Government spokesperson has this evening also indicated that charges could be capped even beyond 2018 as part of the affordability measures.

Meanwhile, the Taoiseach says the Government will introduce legislation to ensure Irish Water is 'never privatised'.

Mr Kenny is ruling out any referendum to enshrine Irish Water as a public company in the constitution:

He told the Dáil: "It's not deemed appropriate to amend the Constitution to provide for a prohibition in the privatisation of a utility company.

"Furthermore, some uncertainty could arise for some privately owned group water schemes that receive considerable state funding as to whether their status is actually changed or not