Just over 2,000 homes are responsible for using nearly an eighth of the country's total municipal water supply.

New figures from the CSO show that the average home, with a water meter, used 383 litres of water per day.

But they also show that nearly a third of the country's entire water usage is down to 3.4 per cent of homes, which use 5,000 litres a day - over 13 times the average.

At the most extreme end, 12 per cent of the water supply is taken up by only just over 0.3 per cent of homes that have a meter fitted.

Those homes are recorded as consuming an average of 13,094 litres of water per day.

The figures also suggest that very few homes would be liable for charges under the new regime proposed by an Oireachtas committee.