Number who have paid water charges 'cannot be revealed'

A member of the Socialist Party says the number of people who have paid their water charges 'cannot be revealed' because the figures are 'on the floor'.

Speaking in the Dáil today, Dublin South West TD Paul Murphy said that he submitted a Freedom of Information request to Irish Water to find out how many people have paid their water bill.

The request revealed that the number of bills past their pay-by date then stood at 800-thousand.

But Irish Water would not confirm how many people had actually paid their bill because this 'risked disrupting ordinary business'.

Deputy Murphy says that this silence on numbers speaks volumes;