The Minister for the Environment and one of the country's leading waste firms have clashed over landfill levies and the financial viability of incinerators.
John Ahern of Indaver Ireland has said his company will not proceed with construction of two incinerators once planning has been completed.
He said the market is being 'destroyed' because the Government has not increased the levy on landfill and there is uncertainty if his plants in Meath and Cork would make any money.
Mr Ahern said Britain's Chancellor Gordon Brown is to increase the landfill levy over the next three years to more than €70 while in Ireland it has remained at €15 since 2003.
He said Indaver is to open an office in May in Britain and seek to win contracts as there was financial certainty.
In a statement this lunchtime, the Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, said Government policy on landfill and waste management would be determined by the public good and not the requirements of one company.
The Minister said any decision would be taken after the Govertment had completed its consultation paper on regulation of the market.
Indaver Ireland is currently developing two incinerators - a toxic waste facility at Ringaskiddy in Cork and a municipal facility at Carronstown in Meath.
The Meath plant is currently before the Supreme Court, where a judgment is overdue on whether the Government correctly transposed an EU Directive relating to Environmental Impact Statements.
John Ahern said many European companies would rush to Britain as dozens of plants would have to be build if the Chancellor's target of reducing landfill was to be achieved.
He said the Government here could increase the landfill
by €5 a ton each year, and thereby support incineration, but this has not happened.
