Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has denied making a "sneaky" attempt to block legislation requiring developers to complete work on housing estates.
Labour environment spokesperson Eamon Gilmore last year put forward a bill to address the widespread problem of work not being completed on the public spaces in a development.
Mr Roche supported the bill and said the Government would not block its passage through the Oireachtas pending certain amendments.
But Mr Gilmore today said the Minister had instructed his Fianna Fáil colleague Seán Haughey, who chairs the Oireachtas Committee on the Environment, to take the bill off the agenda for yesterday's sitting.
The Labour TD said the Minister had to powers to make such a request and said it was a "sneaky behaviour".
He said it now appeared that Minister's support for the Planning and Development Bill last year was because of the by-elections in Meath and Kildare North.
"Now they are once again abandoning families in unfinished estates and are reverting to their traditional position of support for unscrupulous building contractors."
A spokesman for Minister denied the claim, saying the Government had taken legal advice on Mr Gilmore's bill and there were elements within it that may be unconstitutional.
He said when the committee wrote to Mr Roche about the bill, the Minister indicated that the issues it aimed to address would be incorporated into the Critical Infrastructure Bill.
The bill would soon be before the Oireachtas and would be processed as "a matter of priority," the spokesman said.
Independent Catherine Murphy was elected in the Kildare by-election where unfinished estates were high on the agenda of the electorate's concerns.