The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, has set a final deadline of next Friday for Dublin City Council to adopt its budget for this year. Otherwise it will be replaced by a Government-appointed commissioner.
In a letter to the city manager, Mr John Fitzgerald, the Minister said he took a "very serious view" of the council's failure to discharge its statutory obligations under the 1946 Public Bodies Order, as amended.
"The adoption of the statutory estimate of expenses is probably the most important function which a local authority is called on to discharge," Mr Dempsey said.
Failure to do so had serious consequences.
He was responding to a written request for a further extension of time to allow the council another opportunity to resolve a long-running dispute over the inclusion of household waste charges, which could raise £13.5 million.
The Minister made it clear that January 12th was the final deadline.
If the council failed to adopt the estimates for 2001, he fully intended to consider the "ultimate sanction" of replacing it with a commissioner.
Most members of the city council have been refusing to approve the estimates because they contain charges of up to £150 per household for a wheelie-bin service.
Mr Fitzgerald has repeatedly argued that the charges are necessary to meet the cost of the corporation's ambitious targets to recycle 60 per cent of its waste.
Mr Fitzgerald said he was, however, "quite confident of a positive outcome" when the council holds its seventh meeting on the highly charged issue on Friday next.
But last night city councillor Mr Christy Burke said he remained steadfast in his opposition to refuse charges.
"There are many other ways to raise funds rather than penalising PRSI workers," he said.
Other means of funding for recycling could include a hotel bed tax, imposing rates on Government buildings, or using the income from taxi plates being issued since deregulation began, he said.
Refuse charges have been imposed by the majority of local authorities in the State.
But Mr Burke says Dublin should be exempt because of the many other resources it could tap into.
He said the Minister's threat to replace members of the city council with a commissioner if it refused to adopt its estimates was a blow to democracy. Mr Eric Byrne of Labour said he too remained "viciously opposed" to charges.