People do not have the right to take the law into their own hands, the Taoiseach has warned in the Dáil as anti-bin tax protests escalate in Dublin.
Mr Ahern said he would not "stand down the law" which empowers local authorities to refuse to collect the household waste of those who do not pay their bin charges.
He rejected a suggestion by the Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, that the order allowing non-collection of household rubbish could be "put into abeyance on condition that the blockade is called off".
Answering Opposition questions, Mr Ahern said "the law is the law"; he would not stand it down when it "becomes inconvenient for people or for political activists wishing to flout it".
Thousands of households were affected by yesterday's protests outside bin depots in the Dublin area and more than 50,000 were left without a refuse service on Tuesday.
At least 20 protesters are expected to appear before the High Court and 15 have so far been jailed including the Socialist TD, Mr Joe Higgins, who is due for release this weekend after serving a four-week sentence.
Mr Rabbitte had asked if leaving the issue to the gardaí and the courts was the "only solution" being offered to a situation where waste piled high on the streets was causing a health hazard, political activists were being imprisoned and conflict was fomented among residents.
The legislation "is the law of the land and has passed through the democratic process. It must be respected equally by all citizens," Mr Ahern insisted.
Workers, officials and the gardaí were trying to enforce that law. "There is no easy solution to this problem, but while the situation is a difficult one, consultation is ongoing."
The Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, called on the Taoiseach to ask the Minister for Justice to consult the Garda Commissioner "to ensure that a service for which people have paid will be provided". People in south Dublin had paid €2 million in refuse charges in the last six weeks. "Everyone has the right to legitimate protest but not the right to prevent a service being provided for those who have paid a legitimate charge," he said.
Mr Ahern agreed that everyone had a right to protest but not "in this particular manner. They are flouting the law and are blocking others from obtaining a service. If I do not pay my electricity or gas bill, my service is cut off. If I do not pay my television licence fee, I am fined. If I do not pay my water charges, other difficulties arise. If a person does not pay refuse charges then his or her bins should not be collected."
He said the vast majority of people in Dublin paid the bin charges and there were not "vast numbers of people involved in anarchy or protest". According to Garda figures he received, about 150 people in a city of 1.25 million were blocking the council from collecting household waste, and the Garda was at all the depots and intended "to deal with the situation as responsibly as it can".
Mr Finian McGrath (Ind, Dublin North-Central) said, however, that 37,000 people had not paid the charges.
"Nobody likes to see anyone injured as a result of these issues but people cannot take the law into their own hands," Mr Ahern said in reference to the protester injured when he fell from a local authority lorry as it drove from a bin depot at speed.
Mr Rabbitte said the blockade was "unreasonable and ought to be called off", but added there was "no industrial dimension to this dispute which could cause workers to be suspended and taken off the payroll".
Council workers had been taken off the payroll because they refused to drive lorries to the gate where the protesters gathered, and the gardaí had advised they could not take any action against protesters unless the trucks went to the gate and were stopped.
