Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton rejected a claim that the Government was neglecting rural Ireland in heated Dáil exchanges with Fianna Fáil TD Barry Cowen.

He said he would take no lectures from Mr Cowen on the management of the regions.

“When your party was in government, you sought to develop regions on the basis of a construction industry,’’ he said.

Mr Cowen said there was a two-tier recovery under way.

“That is the department for which the golden boy has responsibility, the Minister for Finance, the real brains supposedly behind the Government,’’ he said.

Irish Water

Mr Cowen said the Government had “cut rural Ireland adrift’’ and had not contemplated the effect “the monster that is Irish Water’’ would have. “You never accepted there was a need for proper scrutiny of the legislation that accompanied its set-up.’’

Mr Bruton said the Government was now sitting down with stakeholders to see how the potential of the regions could be best developed.

Mr Cowen said he was shocked to learn about a company seeking to create 55 jobs in Carlow as well as 70 construction jobs in the development phase of a new distillery. Walsh Whiskey Distillery was building the first distillery in the southeast for 200 years, but Irish Water presented it with a bill for €500,000 in addition to the cost of installing a water treatment system.

“This unexpected charge is a direct result of the Government’s decision to establish Irish Water,’’ he said.

Mr Bruton said Enterprise Ireland was supporting the company. "It is encouraging to see a wide number of distilleries now being established."

The Minister rejected any idea that the Government was not supporting small business. “The reality is that 70 per cent of the resources within my department go to the support of Irish-owned companies and 75 per cent of those are located outside of Dublin.”