If you want an example of what ails the political culture of this country, look no further than the Poolbeg peninsula. Poolbeg is in the heart of Dublin city. The power station located there gives rise to the pair of red and white striped chimneys that climb into any movie ever shot in the city. Of late, Poolbeg is hot with strife over plans to locate Ireland's first municipal incinerator on the peninsula. Another round in the ding-dong struggle was slugged out recently.

Incineration is a fact of life in waste disposal in western society. It has been modified and improved, and is now widely accepted not to present any serious health risks. It even has a cuddly name – thermal treatment.

Incineration is also an unfortunate necessity in a developed economy. Waste disposal costs a fortune. Landfill is an environmental disaster. Recycling is the best option, but can't take up the whole slack. Exporting waste, as we do with abortion, is no longer feasible. Disposing of waste costs three times as much here as it does in Britain.

The matter has not featured as a general election issue since it was first mooted in 1996. It is reasonable to assume people are not too worked up about it as a concept.

Unless, of course, one pops up in their own backyard. For more than a decade, there has been a proposal to locate a €250m municipal waste incinerator in Poolbeg, designed to burn between 300,000 and 600,000 tonnes annually. The location is strategic, accommodating traffic from the M50 and Port Tunnel.

Local residents are dead set against the idea. They have firsthand experience of state-of-the-art waste disposal. A sewage treatment plant built on the peninsula has caused all manner of odour problems over the last six or seven years. Locals simply don't trust reassurances about health and safety, and, as with residents anywhere, they don't want trucks full of waste traipsing through their streets. But the alternative to locating a facility in the best strategic interest is to do so at the point of least resistance, which is the most undemocratic option of all.

Whatever the merits or demerits of the proposal, the politics of the incinerator highlight the political culture that has the country in a mess. Once incineration was adopted as government policy, it became an orphan. A policy that was seen as likely to attract objections was just turfed out to be taken off the streets by local authorities and the private sector.

There was no effort to sell the policy to the public. There was no question of retaining responsibility for the facilities in the public sector. There was no attempt to introduce an incentive scheme in locations earmarked for incinerators. Instead, the policy was regarded as toxic and lumped with unelected officials, who were charged with doing the government's awkward bidding.

At a local level, the national interest was jettisoned in the name of expediency. Local TD Michael McDowell's party, the Progressive Democrats, were strongly in favour of incineration. He was against it in his backyard. The PDs were also gung ho on the 2006 strategic infrastructure bill, designed to fast track the planning process for projects vital to the national interest. McDowell, as minister for justice, ensured the Poolbeg incinerator was exempted from the new bill.

Even more interesting has been the role of current environment minister John Gormley. He had been a long-time opponent to incineration in general and the Poolbeg facility in particular. Since he assumed office in 2007, he has been doing his damnedest to undermine what is a central policy plank of successive governments.

In October 2007, he said a network of incinerators was not required in the state. We could do with just two, and guess where one of those wouldn't be? In December 2008, when the Environmental Protection Agency granted a licence for the facility, Gormley issued a statement.

"My personal position as a local resident and public representative in regard to incineration generally, and this facility in particular, is well known and has not changed. However, as minister, I work within a legal framework put in place by the Oireachtas, which forbids my intervention," he said, before going on to outline all he was doing to limit incineration as a policy.

Last September, he claimed that the Poolbeg facility may be uncompetitive. Two weeks ago he claimed the incinerator, should it go ahead, could cost the taxpayer €18m annually. Dublin City Council replied that he was talking through his hat in this, the latest attempt to undermine the policy of his own government. Ten days ago Gormley published a review, ordered by him, which delivered the result he wanted – that a facility at Poolbeg would not be viable.

In one sense, it's difficult to blame Gormley. He knows that even if he turns out to be the best minister for the environment in the history of the state, he will still lose his seat if the incinerator goes ahead. Paralysis, incoherent policy, duplicity, defunct leadership, the primacy of local or sectoral interests over that of the national interest, all inform the political element of the Poolbeg incinerator.

On Wednesday, Noel Dempsey suggested to an Oireachtas committee that we need to reform the electoral system from the parish pump-based PR system to something more compatible with legislators working in the national interest. That would be a start. But something needs to be done fast. Anybody who thinks that the same culture has nothing to do with our current economic woes is only kidding themselves.

mclifford@tribune.ie