Ireland said payment of new water charges implemented in exchange for a bailout were in line with expectations despite figures released Wednesday showing that less than half of all customers paid the first bills.

"After the first billing cycle, Irish Water have collected 46 percent of their revenue with 675,000 households who have made efforts to pay their bills," said minister for the environment Alan Kelly.

Dublin committed to charging for water as part of a series of revenue-raising conditions of an international rescue programme Ireland entered in 2010.

The charges, which have sparked public anger, were introduced this year as the final element of austerity measures which have raised 30 billion euros ($33 billion) via spending cuts and tax hikes since 2008.

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in several protests against the charges and Prime Minister Enda Kenny's coalition government was forced to reduce them.

On Wednesday, the utility which was established to collect the charges and improve water infrastructure, said it had received 30.5 million euros of the 66.8 million euros due for its first billing cycle, January-March.

"This represents a solid start for Irish Water," said the utility's spokeswoman, Elizabeth Arnett.

But opposition figures said the statistics showed that water charges have failed and that they will be a central issue in the next general election, which must be held by next April.

"It's an unmitigated disaster for Irish Water," said Anti-Austerity Alliance lawmaker Paul Murphy.

"It undermines the water charges quite significantly and places the government in quite a spot," he told AFP.

Murphy said the national campaign to encourage non-payment would continue with the next national protest taking place at the end of August.