The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, will be remembered as the man who set out to enhance local government and then disenfranchised the councillors, the House was told.

"He has taken the players off the pitch and allowed the referee to finish the game," said Mr Paul Connaughton (Fine Gael, Galway East). He was speaking during the debate on the Waste Management (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2001, which he said would "go down in history as one of the saddest occasions" for local democracy.

The proposed legislation was draconian, Mr Connaughton said. It did not take any notice of elected councillors, local committees or the many different ways to dispose of waste pioneered across the world, "but it takes notice of the consultants who, at colossal expense to the Exchequer, draw up plans to dispose of waste through incineration and landfill sites which are placed in areas that families must leave."

He referred in particular to the Connacht waste management plan - for Galway, Mayo, Roscommon and Leitrim.

The plan, drawn up by consultants M.C. O'Sullivan, recommended an incinerator be built in Galway city and identified the need for a landfill site in Co Galway.

It also referred to reuse, recycling and waste minimisation. "However, this plan is riddled with inconsistencies," he said.

The other five local authorities did not have a problem agreeing to the plan because their waste would be burnt in Galway and placed "for them" in landfill sites. Earlier, during the Order of Business, several Opposition deputies called for more time to be allocated to the debate on the Bill.