Fine Gael’s Tom Barry said he was highlighted “the nonsense” that the utility wants to put new meters in homes on commercial properties, such as farms, which have already been metered for years.

Mr Barry’s home is on his farm at Killavullen, near Mallow, Co Cork, and he says the whole property, including the house, has been metered since 1966.

He said at a meeting with Irish Water managing director John Tierney it emerged the utility wanted to put in separate meters into thousands of such properties.

Mr Barry said he became “animated” with Mr Tierney when the latter did not seem to understand the point he was making and decided to directly approach Enda Kenny on the issue.

“I am amazed that there would be proposals to interfere with something that is already working well. I feel that John Tierney did not understand the argument that you cannot charge for a rural household whose water is already coming through a metered process,” said Mr Barry.

He said that if Irish Water persisted they would have to lay a one-and-a-half-mile long pipe from a road to his house, and this would be “a complete and utter waste of public money”.

“Irish Water and John Tierney were unwilling to accept that their proposal was wrong and, therefore, I had a meeting with An Taoiseach and presented him with a full appraisal of why this approach to rural water supply is not correct.

“I also met with senior government advisers to ensure that this current process, which is working, is not interfered with,” Mr Barry said.