A new printing limit of 60,000 pages per year has been set for Dublin city councillors after complaints of excessive use by two People Before Profit councillors.

The limit was set by the council's Protocol Committee which was told that overall printing volumes had more than doubled over the past five years.

Speaking after the meeting, People Before Profit councillors Tina McVeigh and John Lyons, who had run up printing costs totalling €6,352 in the past four months, defended their use but said they would abide by the new limits.

The committee agreed on a limit of 5,000 copies a month per councillor but this can be annualised and the allowance shared with other members of a political group.

It will be reviewed in September.

During the meeting committee chairman Labour's Dermot Lacey said there was no limit set previously so there could be no question of individual councillors being 'fined' for overuse.

The leaflets distributed by the People Before Profit councillors had contained information on the anti-water charge campaign and Labour's Mary Freehill said it was "extraordinary" that elected members would use publicly funded facilities to urge people not to pay for public services.

But Fine Gael's Naoise Ó Muirí said trying to "police" what councillors printed was a "recipe for disaster".

A report for the meeting by executive manager VJ Norton revealed that the amount of paper used had increased by 125,000 in the previous 12 month even though last year had the run-up to the local elections.

Mr Norton stated that excessive use of the printers was causing breakdowns and other councillors also found it difficult to access them because they were in constant use.

He had recommended a monthly limit of 2,000 pages per councillor.

After the meeting Cllr McVeigh said that she considered her amount of printing justified as there are 18,000 houses in her ward.

Cllr Lyons defended using leaflets for the anti-water charges campaign saying he had been elected to fight them.

Four other unnamed councillors were the next highest users running up costs of between €830 and €1,200 in the same four month period.