Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Simon Coveney says he will not “make a fool” out of those who have paid water charges to date by writing off unpaid bills.

Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, he said it would set a “dangerous precedent” to write off the water charges people have not paid.

Legislation is due to be introduced to suspend water charges for nine months while the future of Irish Water and the controversial charges are examined.

Mr Coveney admitted that only 64 per cent of customers are reported to have paid their water bill to date - with a “fall-off” after the general election amid speculation the utility might be abolished.

The Minister said: “We’ve made it very clear in our Programme for Government that people who have paid are not going to be disadvantaged versus people who haven’t.

“What we want is to suspend charges and penalties for the nine-month period to take the heat out of the situation.”

He said that it is his view that Irish Water should be “pursuing people who haven’t paid. When there are charges that people are legally bound to pay, I think it would set a very dangerous precedent for us to simply write them off. That is not what I’d be advocating.”

He explained that Fine Gael wants to pursue people who haven’t paid in a way that will allow them to afford the charges.

He said: “I am not going to make a fool out of people who have paid their water charges because they believed it was the right thing to do, and they believed they had a responsibility to do that.”