Minister for Education Richard Bruton refused to be drawn on whether the Government would refund those who paid if water charges were abolished.

He said the Oireachtas committee considering the report by the expert commission would discuss how that would be dealt with.

“I am not certainly going to make a decision that we are going to commit money today to the repayment of charges to others,’’ he added.

Mr Bruton said the House would first have to deliberate on the issue and devise a consensus approach.

He said the commission had done very valuable work in showing elements of fairness which had to be respected, including those who had paid.

Asked about a referendum to ensure Irish Water was retained in public ownership, Mr Bruton said the Government was open to discuss the matter. It would first be discussed by the Oireachtas committee, he added.

Sought an assurance

The Minister, who was taking Opposition Leaders' Questions, was replying to Labour leader Brendan Howlin, who asked about the position of "law-abiding citizens'' who had paid the charges. He sought an assurance from the Minister that no citizen would be treated less favourably than others.

Mr Howlin said it was “fanciful’’ to believe anybody who did not pay would be pursued for the money.

“It is absolutely a requirement, if charges are not to be imposed, they are not imposed on anybody,’’ Mr Howlin added.

Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said a charge for excessive use would inevitably lead to an across-the-board charge in the future.

“A low charge now to soften the blow before hiking charges in the future is how the story goes and that is not acceptable,’’ she added.

“Given Fine Gael’s and, indeed, Fianna Fáil’s track record on water charges, how could anyone trust them not to increase water charges in the future ?’’

Ms McDonald said Fianna Fáil intended proposing a super-tax of combined water charges and property tax.

“A super-tax from super Fianna Fáil,’’ she added. “Sinn Féin is committed to scrapping both.’’

Ms McDonald said, in any event, the report acknowledged determining what was excessive water usage would be extremely difficult to calculate.

Enforcing

“It is also highly likely that the cost of administering and enforcing such a scheme would be greater than the revenue that might be realised,’’ she added.

AAA-PBP TD Richard Boyd Barrett said the Government and Fianna Fáil were engaged in "a monumental political fudge'' on the issue.

For the past two years, in unprecedented numbers, he said, the people of the country who had been assaulted with austerity and injustice, had taken to the streets and said they did not want household water charges, full stop.

"The one useful aspect of the commission's report is the confirmation of something we and the people on the streets have been saying, that Ireland does not have a problem of excessive household usage,'' Mr Boyd Barrett added.

“In fact, we use 20 per cent less water per household than Britain does, which has had charges and meters for many years.’’