Government Chief Whip Paul Kehoe has said he believes the water charges concessions have satisfied many people.

Mr Kehoe said the Government would take heed of the findings of the Sunday Business Post/Red C poll which suggests that Fine Gael has lost support.

Support for Fine Gael is down four points to 22%, while Fianna Fail support is at 18%.

The poll found that the Labour Party was at 8%, unchanged from the previous Red C poll.

Support for Sinn Féin was at 22%, an increase of two points, indicating the party's support is level with Fine Gael.

The poll also found that Independents and smaller parties are the most popular group among the voters surveyed, with support up two points to 30%.

Most of the sampling was done before the revised water charges were announced four days ago.

Deputy Kehoe said it had been a tough few weeks for the Coalition parties.

"This has been a difficult number of weeks for the Government specifically around water and charging for water.

"This opinion poll was taken prior to the announcement on Wednesday, and I have spoken to a huge amount of people over the past number of days, and they accept that the announcement on Wednesday brings clarity and certainty and the people I've spoken to are happy with the announcement that was made on Wednesday by the Government."

Speaking on RTÉ's The Week in Politics, Labour Minister of State Aodhán Ó Ríordáin also said the Government had addressed people's concerns over water charges. 

Mr Ó Ríordáin said while the Government had a bad year, the Budget was giving back to people.  

He said the average nurse married to the average garda would get something in the region of €1,200 back in the New Year.  

Mr Ó Ríordáin said Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly had made a "huge difference" in the way he had tackled the Irish Water issue. 

He said when people's payslips come in in the New Year, when people see the recovery, Irish Water will be viewed in that context. 

Fianna Fáil's environment spokesman Barry Cowen said the credibility of the Government had been undermined and no amount of climb downs would help.

Independent TD Thomas Pringle said the 100,000 people on the streets had shown that the Government had lost its mandate.