The Greens last night denied Opposition claims that a split had opened up between the party leader, John Gormley, and the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, over the number of incinerators required by the country to deal with waste.
In the Dáil yesterday the Taoiseach said reports had referred to the need for four incinerators but the Minister for the Environment and Green Party leader, John Gormley, said later this was not at odds with his view that two incinerators, at most, are required.
The Fine Gael environment spokesman, Phil Hogan, said last night that Mr Gormley was completely deluded if he believed that the Taoiseach's comments on incineration were not at odds with his own statements.
"There is a rift between John Gormley and Bertie Ahern a mile wide and the Environment Minister's comments that all is rosy in the government garden are embarrassing. Does he not recognise a split when he sees one or is he really that clueless about what is going on?" asked Mr Hogan.
A spokesman for Mr Gormley said later there was no split between the Minister and the Taoiseach and the Opposition was simply making mischief by trying to maintain that there was.
"In the Dáil the Taoiseach spoke about the need to move away from incineration. The Minister has made clear his view that an over-capacity for incineration is being planned. The Government policy on the issue is quite clear. There has been a strong and unequivocal shift away from incineration," he said.
Asked about incineration in the Dáil the Taoiseach said Mr Gormley had taken the view that we should look at the modern technologies and the new systems being used in the Nordic countries and if we did that we would not need the number of incinerators that had been previously listed.
"There are four major applications for incinerators in the planning process. Based on his examination of new technologies, perhaps we will not need eight incinerators - four was the number mentioned in a number of reports," said Mr Ahern.
As well as accusing the Government parties of being divided on the issue of incineration, Mr Hogan maintained that Mr Gormley's claims about the capacity of new technology to deal with waste did not stand up.
"Minister Gormley is unable to back up his claims that 1.3 million tonnes of waste can be dealt with through Mechanical Biological Treatment. Yesterday, I pressed the Minister in a parliamentary question on how he arrived at such a figure but Minister Gormley was unable to provide a response or back up any of these statistics he had previously lauded," said Mr Hogan.
"The Minister's incineration comments have been contradicted by his own Taoiseach, his own remarks on the split are delusional and his figures on waste strategy do not add up. After only a few months in the job, disarray and disorder haunt the Environment Ministry and its waste strategy," he said.
