Fine Gael is to introduce a private member's motion in the Dáil today calling on Minister for the Environment John Gormley to abandon plans for a waste incinerator at Poolbeg in Dublin.
The motion is the latest attempt by the party to embarrass the Green Party following its decision to enter coalition with Fianna Fáil. Mr Gormley was one of more than 2,000 local people to lodge objections to the proposed incinerator.
Last week the Greens voted against a Fine Gael motion calling for the scrapping of the controversial co-location hospital plan even though its election manifesto was highly critical of the project.
Fine Gael environment spokesman Fergus O'Dowd said yesterday the majority of local residents voted for candidates opposed to the Poolbeg facility.
He said the Minister had no electoral mandate for the project, and the Fine Gael motion would call on him to use his powers under Section 24 (c) of the Waste Management Act 1996 to abandon the plan.
Mr O'Dowd said Mr Gormley's office had the power to halt the incinerator project, and he should not attempt to "pull another Pontius Pilate stunt, like he did with the M3".
Mr Gormley said last month he did not have the power to overturn a decision by his predecessor, Dick Roche, to allow the M3 to be built over an archaeological site near Tara.
Mr O'Dowd said that for years Fianna Fáil governments had failed to address "the widely-held, genuine health concerns surrounding the Poolbeg incinerator", and had disregarded the infrastrucutural problems such a project would cause.
"Now, with over 300,000 people in the Dublin region casting their votes for candidates - including the Greens - that opposed the incinerator, it is clear that the project has no electoral mandate either."
He added that most TDs elected for Dublin were implacably against building an incinerator at Poolbeg, as were elected members of Dublin City Council.
A Green Party spokesman said last night the party would be voting against the motion, and Mr Gormley would be speaking on the matter tonight in the Dáil.
He said the motion in effect asked the Minister to interfere in the planning process, something he could not do.