Irish Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore warned that Irish Water would have to prove that €50 million (£41m) spent on consultants had been good value for money.

The new state-owned utility company's chief executive John Tierney had just revealed that Irish Water spent the enourmous sum on consultants during its set-up over the last year.

He said a total of €100m (£83m) had been spent establishing the company, more than half on external consultants.

Deputy PM Mr Gilmmore said the figure "does seem to me to be high.

"I think Irish Water will have to demonstrate that it represents good value for money and that the expenditure was necessary as part of the set-up costs for Irish Water."

People Before Profit party TD Richard Boyd Barrett insisted that the size of the consultancy bill showed that Irish Water was just "another trough for the pigs to feed from."

He claimed that struggling families would be forced to pick up the bill "for this greed and theft of a public resource."

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin branded the multimillion payouts as a "scandal waiting to evolve."

Mr Martin described the fledgling organisation as a quango in the making and warned householders would end up footing the bill.

He also claimed that local authorities had been kept "completely in the dark" about the new organisation.