Sinn Féin in government would not pursue people with unpaid water bills or give money back to those who have made payments, party leader Gerry Adams has said.

He told RTÉ Radio the money was not available to reimburse those who had paid the charges up to now.

Mr Adams said Sinn Féin would abolish water charges, scrap Irish Water and redeploy staff in the utility, while also abolishing the property tax.

Asked what would hapen to senior managers who had contracts with Irish Water, he said this would be looked at on an individualised basis.

Asked also what would happen to companies with contracts for installing water meters given his party has said it would abandon the metering programme, he said if Sinn Féin received a mandate it would “change the law to serve the common interest”.

Mr Adams also said his party would introduce free GP care for everyone but this could take two terms in government to achieve in full.

He said Sinn Féin favoured the introduction of a universal healthcare system which would provide care from the cradle to the grave and be paid for by means of progressive taxation.

GP care

Asked whether it was fair that the better off would receive free GP care and free prescriptions under his party’s proposals, Mr Adams said “we would take money off them in terms of tax.”

Mr Adams was also asked whether people should be concerned about the possibility of a former IRA man becoming minister for justice or minister for defence if Sinn Féin came to power. Mr Adams replied: “ Not any more than they would have been concerned about Éamon de Valera or Frank Aiken or Sean Lemass or Gerry Kelly or Martin McGuinness in the North.”

Further asked whether his loyalty would be to “good republicans” - a reference to Mr Adams’ description of Thomas “Slab” Murphy - or to “the republic”, the Sinn Féin leader said his loyalty would be to the people.

In a separate interview for The Irish Times Inside Politics podcast, Mr Adams said Sinn Féin would continue to vote against the annual renewal of emergency legislation to tackle terrorism introduced after the Omagh bombing.

The 1998 Amendment to the Offences Against the State act provided for extended periods of detention for terrorism suspects and created new offences.

The provisions of the Amendment are subject to annual renewal by the Dáil on the basis of a recommendation from the Garda Commissioner and have been renewed each year since 1998.

Mr Adams said “before my time we voted against it, and we will continue to do that,” but he added that Sinn Féin supported the Garda Commissioner.

‘Important tool’

Last June Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald told the Dáil that garda authorities used the provisions of the act regularly and that it was "the clear view of the Garda Síochána that the Act continues to be a most important tool in its ongoing efforts in the fight against terrorism".

“The Commissioner has a job of work to do, and we support her on that and we respect her position. And why wouldn’t a Commissioner go for as much as is necessary to assist her in doing her job,” said Mr Adams.

Mr Adams repeated that Sinn Féin's positions on the Special Criminal Court and Offences Against the State Act were not "red line issues" should it seek to enter office.

“If you were going to make that type of change back to normal judicial process you would do so in consultation with an Garda Siochana, with the judicial system,” he said.