The Taoiseach has told the Dáil that the Minister for the Environment John Gormley does not have the powers to halt the Poolbeg incinerator.
Mr Ahern said John Gormley had powers to promote waste management policies and said recycling rates were increasing rapidly.
He said new technologies coming on stream, like mechanical and biological treatments, would reduce the reliance on incinerators and the minister was trying to increase that capacity.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny asked the Taoiseach what Government policy was in relation to the disposal of waste and if he agreed with Mr Gormley that Government policy was now to make the incinerator in Poolbeg redundant.
He added that the people of Dublin would have to pay for what he called this 'farce'.
Mr Kenny pointed out that Mr Gormley had promised that the incinerator would not go ahead when the Green Party was in Government.
However the Taoiseach said the incinerator was provided for in the Dublin Regional Waste Management Plan.
He said while the minister had certain powers in relation to these plans, they were limited ones and it was wrong that the minister could use any of his powers in a way that would halt the Poolbeg incinerator.
He said in line with national policy the exchequer did not fund heavy waste infrastructure.
Mr Ahern insisted that Government policy on waste identified mechanical and biological treatments to reduce reliance on incineration.
He said that Mr Gormley had produced figures to show that with a developed MBT system the quantity of residual waste would be reduced to some 400,000 tonnes in the next eight years.
Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore also asked the Taoiseach what Mr Gormley meant when he said he was going to make the Ringsend facility redundant.
