Anti Austerity Alliance TD Ruth Coppinger has called Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly a “Thatcherite” following comments he made about anti water charge protestors.

Earlier this week, Ms Coppinger, a TD for Dublin West, defended protests against workers installing water meters. "The workers for Irish Water are being put in an invidious position," she said.

“They obviously need work but also the community do not want the meters that they are installing. At some point, if you are doing a job you have to consider the consequences of it.”

In an interview with The Irish Times on Thursday, Mr Kelly said the comments "accentuated what I always knew: Ruth Coppinger doesn't represent workers, Ruth Coppinger represents a desire to create chaos and instability".

“It’s all about creating insurrection, trying to make the country into chaos,” he said.

“Sure people can protest but having issues with the workers themselves and speaking about them in the way she did, she showed her true colours. Ruth Coppinger and her band of people will lead people up to the top of the hill and then abandon them.”

Responding to Mr Kelly’s remarks, Ms Coppinger said Mr Kelly’s comments were “a slur” on the people involved in the anti water charges movement.

“This is a tactic out of Thatcher’s handbook to try denigrate a movement of working class people. This is from the deputy leader of the Labour Party, the party of Connolly and Larkin? It is a sign of how far to the right Labour has drifted,” said Ms Coppinger.

“Minister Kelly isn’t just a mudguard for right-wing Fine Gael policies, he has made their anti-worker policies his own,” she said.

“It is ironic that he has tried to portray me as anti-worker when he and the Labour Party have stabbed workers in the back over the last four years, cutting wages and imposing regressive taxes. They have implemented vicious austerity which has devastated communities.”

“Water meters and charges have been overwhelmingly rejected by communities across the country,” she said. “They are being met by peaceful, organised community protests. The responsibility for this lies with the Minister who broke election promises on water charges and is ploughing ahead with this hated policy.”