Fianna Fáil environment spokesman Barry Cowen has said the Government’s stance on water charges has “become absolutely farcical”.

Mr Cowen was speaking in Dublin on Thursday at the launch of his party’s new policy on renting.

Questioned about Irish Water, Mr Cowen said: "The issue with the policy is that every time Alan Kelly picks up a phone to a journalist his policy on Irish Water changes. It's become absolutely farcical.

“It’s a total farce and it’s a joke and it just has to stop and come to an end...It’s comical Kelly at his best to be honest with you. For a lad that was AK-47 earlier in the year.”

Mr Cowen said Fianna Fáil never agreed with the setting up of Irish Water, “the construct or the model that is being put in place”.

He said Fianna Fáil in power would dismantle Irish Water “and there’d be no charges”.

He added: “We have a system that is creaking. We have a gold-plated super quango that’s bonus driven, that is costing a billion to date, and not a pipe has been fixed.”

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin TD Dessie Ellis said the coalition was “at sixes and sevens” over the conservation grant.

The Dublin North West deputy said Irish Water was not the correct choice for the supply of water in Ireland.

“The government have scrambled from crisis to crisis with Irish Water and it now emerges that the coalition are not even on the same page when it comes to how the conservation grant is to be paid out.”

Mr Ellis said Sinn Féin was committed to abolishing Irish Water and delivering a public utility if elected to government.

“There must be a single public utility for the supply of clean, fresh drinking water for every home in the country, free of domestic water charges.”