The Government needs to "pull its socks up" over breaches of EU law for which it is "infamous", the Green Party has claimed.
As party leader Trevor Sargent called for an investigation into continued "maladours" from the Ringsend sewage treatment plant in Dublin, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he was amused by the party's inconsistency.
Mr Sargent "opposes every treaty, but he uses every power that the treaties give us", Mr Ahern said.
The Green Party leader said Ireland was cited in the second highest number of legal actions by the EU Commission and in the highest number of complaints per capita on environmental issues.
He said party chairman John Gormley, in whose Dublin South East constituency the Ringsend plant is located, had made an official complaint to the EU about the problem, which continued almost two years after the plant was opened.
Mr Sargent said the Taoiseach had "presided over and accepted the plaudits for the opening of the plant, but will he accept political responsibility and commission an investigation to enable people know what the problem is and deal with it?"
He said the EU Commission had repeatedly warned the Government about the need for legislation to regulate waste-water plants. People who lived in Ringsend, Sandymount or the southeast area "are faced with problems on a daily basis".
If the problem was not addressed Mr Ahern would be standing over more than €300 million of misspent taxpayers' money in building the plant.
Mr Ahern denied it was a major problem, and said the state-of-the-art plant had resulted in Dublin Bay being cleaned up. "A wonderful, magnificent job has been done in the area."
He said the commission had criticised Ireland for not having rules for odour from waste-water treatment plants, and the draft binding rules were being finalised by the department to comply with this requirement.
The reality, however, "is that the rules will not prevent odours arising from time to time while a new plant is being commissioned and settling". This was the technical advice they had received.
"Obviously these issues must be addressed by the builders and operators of the plants, and they are endeavouring to do so."
