Controversial legislation to allow social welfare reductions and attachment of earnings for non-payment of bills has passed second stage in the Dáil by 70 votes to 43.

The Civil Debt Bill will now go to committee stage and is expected to be passed in both the Dáil and Seanad by the summer recess at the end of July.

During the second day of debate in the Dáil, People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said that in many ways the Bill was "an admission of defeat and fear on the part of the Government".

He said it was also a “tribute to the unprecedented popular rebellion and mobilisation that has taken place against water charges over the past year”.

He said the Government’s “strident and confident approach to trying to introduce these regressive and unfair charges has disappeared in the face of a mass popular movement”. The threat to turn off people’s water or reduce it to a trickle “was taken off the table and the amount of the charge was reduced”.

Minister of State Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, however, pointed out that the legislation “will abolish imprisonment for non-payment of debt”.

He said the ability of the debtor to pay the debt was “a key element of the court process. The Bill will ensure that debtors are not subject to attachment or deduction orders which will bring their income levels below a reasonable standard”.