Minister for Housing James Browne has accused Sinn Féin of wasting Dáil time and inventing a phantom to fight by tabling a Bill to prevent the Government from reintroducing water charges.
He said there are no plans to introduce a conservation charge for water contained in the new programme for government.
And he said there is currently no statutory provision for introducing water charges as previous legislation was repealed.
"The Government has no power to do it, no legislation exists that alows us to do it."
"You are bringing forward legislation to prohibit something that we are already prohibited from doing. You would have to bring in legislation to give the Government power to do it."
Sinn Féin has accused the Government of attempting to reimpose water charges "through the back door".
Housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin told the Dáil that despite Government denials, a report that the coalition intended to charge for excessive water use "rang alarm bells".
He said the preparation had been done to dust off a plan from 2017 to charge for overuse.
"People know and understand that this is nothing more than a trojan horse for what would eventually be widespread water charges for people connected to the public water system".
Mr Ó Broin acknowledged that government had publicly said this was not planned but he said "people do not believe you because of hard learned experience and neither do I".
The Minister said this week brought enormous threats to the Irish economy and yet Sinn Féin, he said, were "debating phantom legislation so they could get social media clips to whip up fear and anger on something that is not true".
He said the story originated in one note from an official in a briefing prepared for the incoming minister and he said the party knew the difference between a note from an official and a political decision.
