Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams made the claim as the people of Drogheda and Meath are still without water.
Mr Adams said: "Fine Gael became fixated on establishing the entity of Irish Water when they should have been focused on the dire condition of our water infrastructure.
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"The imposition of water charges and the roll out of the domestic metering programme took priority over the clear need for a radical overhaul of pipes and the wider network.
"The reality is that the government has wasted a great deal of time and money by clinging to an approach that was not going to work as it was never about improving public water services. It was about the privatisation of water services.
"Government water policy should be centred on the provision of water as a state delivered service funded through general taxation."
(CD/MH)
