Former Fine Gael leader Alan Dukes has said the Government had made a "god-awful" mess of Irish Water.

Hundreds more people took to the streets yesterday to protest against water charges, ahead of a national demonstration on December 10.

Alan Dukes said he thought the Government would keep the current system until a more coherent approach could be formulated.

"A glorious, god-awful mess has been made of Irish Water," he said. "We've ended up with a system now that no rational person would have invented if they had sat down to put this kind of system together.

"The hope must be that it will work lamely until some sort of coherent system is put in place."