Sinn Féin said the party has "no intention" of scrapping the charges in response to Mr Barry Cowen's admission that the party would impose charges however he did not know how much they would be.
Sinn Féin Finance Spokesperson Pearse Doherty said: "Despite having come up with the plan to introduce water charges, Fianna Fáil has been busy with a populist rebranding exercise, part of which was a commitment to abolish water charges.
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"It was a key part of Micheál Martin's Ard Fheis speech this year when he said, 'we will scrap Irish Water and the failed, loss-making charge which funds it'.
"Barry Cowen has today admitted that Fianna Fáil are wholly in favour of water charges and have no problem in their imposition upon the Irish people. Not only this, they seem to have little clue as to how much this would even cost Irish households.
"The Irish people will not be played for fools and this only serves to demonstrate in no uncertain terms that there is no difference between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael when it comes to stealth taxes."
(CD)
