Anti-Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy has told Newstalk that his arrest was “the use of the gardai as a political tool to damage the anti-water charges movement”.

Speaking on The Right Hook, Mr Murphy told George Hook he questioned the need for 24 gardai being used to arrest four activists this morning, rather than arrange for the four to meet with gardai at a police station.

“It’s a chilling message to people in advance of a key stage of the anti-water charges movement, saying you can be criminalised for engaging in protest," Mr Murphy said. "I would hope people, even people in favour of the water charge, would see the seriousness of that and say ‘no, that’s goes to far, I don’t stand over that’."

Mr Murphy insisted he was hoping he would get his “day in court” as “there is no question” in his mind that he - and the three other anti-water charges activists arrested this morning in connection with a protest in Jobstown last year - “would be found not guilty.”

“It is unquestionable that we will be found not guilty and the establishment and those that defend them will have egg on their face,” Mr Murphy said.

The interview was at times tense, with Murphy telling Hook at one point: “This is an outrageous interview” and labelling some of Hook’s questioning “a disgrace”.

Murphy discussed the protest in Jobstown and repeated his assertion that the action, which saw Tánaiste Joan Burton allegedly falsely imprisoned in her car. He also discussed in depth his belief that the arrests were political and timed to disrupt the anti-water charges movement.

Gardai held Mr Murphy for close to nine hours today, questioning him about the alleged false imprisonment of Tánaiste Joan Burton at a protest in Jobstown last year.

Ms Burton has travelled to a graduation ceremony at An Cosan on the Clonmore Road, Jobstown when a group of anti-water charge protestors surrounded her car, keeping the Tánaiste inside the car for over two hours.

A file is being prepared for the DPP.

Several other anti-water charges TDs have claimed the arrest was politically motivated.

Listen below to the interview in full