Following the announcement of further water charges protests tomorrow, Phil Hogan spoke to Lunchtime with Jonathan Healy about his opinions on Irish Water.

Mr Hogan declared that he understood the hardship that people were under but that the Government were placed on a strict timetable to get Irish Water up and running: "We were asked to squeeze setting up a new utility into 4 years instead of 10."

Mr Hogan told also spoke to Jonathan about the protests: "The people who are paying the piper,the EU, the IMF the ECB, who are paying for the people who are marching tomorrow, be it public servants or on welfare or on any particular services, this is where we were getting our money for the last few years."

Ireland's EU Commissioner also stated when Fergus O'Dowd was his Junior Minister at the Department of Envoirnment, he was fully briefed on Irish Water, despite the fact that O'Dowd claimed there were communications issues in relation to the company.

Mr Hogan stated: "The former Minister was briefed on every issue, every part of the way in relation to the establishment of Irish Water."

Here is the interview in full: