Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said that health and housing are the defining issues of our time and need resolution.
He has also described Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar's portrayal of the talks between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil on facilitating government formation as "very dishonest".
Mr Martin said he took strong exception to comments made by Mr Varadkar suggesting Fianna Fáil placed too much emphasis on water in the talks at the expense of other issues.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Sean O'Rourke, he said that he believed Mr Varadkar had his own issues with water.
"What he said during the talks was that basically as far as Leo could see that water charges for them and the water meters in particular were e-voting machines multiplied by ten.
"In other words an acknowledgement that the investment of €500 million in water meters was a potential waste of money because it's a flat charge now. They're not being used for purposes of charging."
Responding to Mr Martin's comments, Mr Varadkar said: "Micheál Martin was not present for any of the talks so he may not have a full picture of the discussions.
"The point I was making was that €500 million worth of public money has been spent putting water meters into the ground.
"Metering is the most effective way to identify leaks and promote conservation by allowing people to monitor how much water they use. I think it would be a real waste if they weren't used."
Mr Martin also said he viewed Fine Gael proposals for private companies to take over poorly performing hospitals as "a pathway to privatisation".
He said that the Dáil needed to face the realities of health and welcomed the introduction of a budget oversight committee which he said would lead to an honest "laying out on the table" in terms of what was needed for budgets and costs.
The former minister for health said that he believed in investment in the public health system and that while a single-tier system remains a long way off, steps are being taken in that direction, in areas such as paediatrics and geriatrics.
Mr Martin said Fianna Fáil supported the ten-year strategy as outlined by Minister for Health Simon Harris.
He said that he, along with people around the country, wanted to give the new Government a fair chance, describing cynicism regarding Fianna Fáil's support of the Government as "over the top".
He added that he would like to think that there would be regular engagement between himself and Taoiseach Enda Kenny and other party leaders.
Mr Martin said that if the issue of water charges had not been dealt with there would be no government, and that now it had been resolved, the Government had a chance to sustain and deal with the bigger issues.
Mr Martin said that the regime initially introduced is now gone and the Dáil would decide on the future of Irish Water.
He added that those who have not yet paid should pay and should be pursued and he said that it was wrong that TDs have not paid the charges.
Mr Martin called on Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald to publish the O'Higgins Report into garda failures in the Cavan/Monaghan division.
He said it was a scandal that only selected pieces of the report have been released.
Social Democrats call for committee on health
Some 89 TDs have signed up to a proposal by the Social Democrats to establish an all-party Oireachtas committee to help reach a political consensus on a ten-year plan for the health service.
The committee could be established within three weeks of receiving the backing of the Dáil and it would report within six months.
It would examine different funding models for the health service.
Social Democrat TD Róisín Shortall has said new Minister for Health Simon Harris has said he is interested in the proposal.
