Irish Water was a Fine Gael idea and Fianna Fáil never made any decisions about creating a water utility while in government, the opposition party has said.

Fianna Fáil Senator and Meath East candidate Thomas Byrne said there was "no decision whatsoever" made on the issue when his party was in office.

He was speaking following claims that a memo had been brought to a cabinet meeting while the party was in government that would have allowed for the establishment of Irish Water.

The utility was a Fine Gael idea, announced by then backbench TD Simon Coveney in June 2009, he said.

He said: “This was their grand plan, to essentially . . . privatise the water system. We’ve opposed that.

“We’ve made no decisions in relation to any water utility. That never came near the cabinet and there were certainly no decisions about water charges.

"Ministers bring memos to cabinet all the time. This was brought by John Gormley, who was not from Fianna Fáil," he said, speaking in advance of Saturday's anti-water charges protest in Dublin.

When it was put to him that two former cabinet members and election candidates in his party agreed with water charges and that the memo had provided for a change in legislation to introduce charges, Mr Byrne said: “There was no change in legislation. Fianna Fáil made no propositions in relation to water.”

In an earlier interview with RTÉ, party leader Micheál Martin said water charges should be forgotten "during the lifetime of the next government".

Mr Byrne also said the party wanted to “give families a break and save the general taxpayer a lump of money because it’s costing us money to keep this show on the road”.

Mr Byrne was speaking during a Fianna Fáil press conference about its education policy, at which education spokesman Charlie McConalogue said that "Ireland cannot afford another Fine Gael-led government, where some are getting ahead but many are being left behind".

Mr McConalogue accused the Government of attacking small schools, which he said accounted for 40 per cent of all national schools.

He said Fianna Fáil in government would restore the funds cut from small schools and employ more teachers, reduce class sizes and freeze third-level fees.

Church patronage

Dublin Central TD Mary Fitzgerald said the Government had pledged to divest 1,500 schools from Catholic church patronage, but just six schools had been divested.

She said that her party is committed to Educate Together schools.

Mr McConalogue said Fianna Fáil’s schools’ enrolment policy would give preference to siblings and then locality.

Asked about negative campaigning by all the parties in the election, including Fianna Fáil, Mr Byrne said: "The negative campaigning has come from Fine Gael and it's all these tricks and tactics they've got from the Tories in England, who have a long history in that.

“It’s not going down well with the public.”