The Dáil has voted against a Sinn Féin plan to hold a referendum on the ownership of Irish Water.
TDs voted 74 to 43 to defeat the Bill in the Dáil this morning.
The Government said the amendment was botched, and that it wuold introduce its own laws to make sure Irish Water could not be privatised without a public vote first.
Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty said the new law would be worthless.
"This is about taking the people for fools," he said. "This is about trying to hope the Irish people don't understand that like that (clicks fingers) you can change the law if you so wish."