The Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, has said he does not envisage a water tax being introduced in 2010.
Mr Gormley was responding to questions from Fine Gael's Phil Hogan about addressing the dearth in local authority funding.
The minister said he was contemplating a number of new revenue raising measures, including a site value tax and a water tax.
Minister Gormley said water metering would require an initial capital injection to physically place a metering system in homes.
He said he did not know if the Government was in a position to introduce such a system and that it would be difficult to see it being introduced next year.
