The Minister for Justice, Mr Michael McDowell, has said he will oppose the construction of a municipal waste incinerator on the Poolbeg Peninsula in Dublin Bay.
Mr McDowell told a meeting of the Sandymount and Merrion Resident's Association last night that the scheme proposed by Dublin City Council constituted "mass burn" incineration and was contrary to Government policy.
However, the Minister denied reports he said he would oppose the inclusion of incineration projects in the new National Infrastructure Bill.
The Bill, which will allow for the fast-tracking of certain infrastructural projects through the planning process, will be brought to the Cabinet before Christmas.
A spokesman for the Minister said Mr McDowell would make his views known if the Bill included incineration projects but fell short of saying he would oppose it.
A spokesman for Dublin City Council told ireland.comthe Poolbeg Peninsula project was still in the procurement stage and four companies had been shortlisted.
He said the proposed facility would use "some form of combustion technology" to dispose of waste but the exact nature of that technology was still to be determined.
Green Party TD, Mr John Gormley today welcomed Mr McDowell's opposition to the proposal.
Mr Gormley who also attended last night's meeting said: "At the end of the meeting I indicated to Mr McDowell that I would work with him on the issue as he had requested, but that if he failed to honour his pledge to vote against the inclusion of incineration in the new National Infrastructure Board that I would come down on him like a ton of bricks.
"The next few weeks will be a test of Mr McDowell's claim that he was not posturing or doing a 'Michael Smith' on the issue."
Labour Party councillor Mr Dermot Lacey also welcomed the Minister's stated opposition to the proposal for Poolbeg. Mr Lacey claimed: "The proposal is the result of the contrivance of the four Dublin Local Authorities Management acting under the direction of the Department of the Environment."
"The proposal to locate an incinerator attracting up to 600 truck movements per day at the heart of the City in an area already over-congested is madness and unacceptable," he said.