Coveney attacks Fianna Fáil on Irish Water stance

The Agriculture Minister has accused Fianna Fáil of a major U-turn on Irish Water.

Fine Gael's Simon Coveney has said Fianna Fáil is now opposing the very system it wanted to create when it was in Government.

Fianna Fáil has said Coveney was the creator of Irish Water, as he proposed it in a policy document for Fine Gael in 2009.

Micheál Martin says water charges should be scrapped during the lifetime of the next government on @TodaySORhttps://t.co/OchfzylKHg

— RTÉ News (@rtenews) February 19, 2016

However, Simon Coveney has said Fianna Fáil laid the groundwork for water charges, and it is wrong to get rid of them.

“Here we have a party in Government when faced with the real decisions around ‘how do we fix a water system Ireland?’, they committed to domestic water charges and setting up a single utility to try and co-ordinate it, to move away from the inefficiencies and underinvestment of the past” said Coveney.

“When people decided they don’t like Irish Water, because they have been unpopular, Fianna Fáil move with the tide again.”