Roche to address museum head's M3 concerns

The Minister for the Environment says he expects a response from his archaeologists to concerns raised by the director of the National Museum, Dr Pat Wallace, about the M3 motorway within three weeks.

The Irish Times reported yesterday that Mr Wallace had sent Mr Roche an 18-page letter which made it clear he is against the chosen route and, in particular, a proposed interchange to the north of the Hill of Tara.

Speaking in Cork yesterday, Mr Roche said: "He has given me a very detailed response. What I've done is that I've taken that document and I've sent it to my department to the archaeologists there and I've said to them, 'Prepare your response'. When that process is complete, I will make my decision."

While he did not wish to place his department's archaeologists under pressure to rush their response, he would expect a reply within two to three weeks.

"I'm not going to let the matter drag on. I would like to have a decision made sooner rather than later but it is certainly premature to say that I've made the decision because I haven't."

Mr Roche added: "The argument that is being put up by other quarters that I should use my power as the person who does or doesn't give an excavation licence - that I should refuse it as a way to effectively frustrate the planning process. That's not the statutory responsibility I have. What people are doing by that is that they're suggesting I abuse the power I have.

Meanwhile, campaigners against plans to route the M3 motorway past the Hill of Tara in Co Meath have said they hope to rally public support in an effort to persuade Mr Roche to think again. The Save Tara-Skryne Valley campaign said it believed public pressure could still influence Mr Roche. In order to avoid a lengthy legal challenge, the group will have information booths at Tara, Navan and Dublin over the coming weekends for people to add their names to a petition that so far has 20,000 signatures.

"We believe we have a very strong case, backed up the director of the National Museum and the academic world," a spokesman said. "The Minister for Heritage has a constitutional and statutory duty to give maximum protection to the Hill of Tara."

Both the Labour Party and the Green Party said a decision to proceed with the present plan would be "an act of cultural vandalism".

They said Mr Roche, as Minister for Heritage, had a duty to protect Tara's landscape against the motorway.

Labour's spokesman on the environment Eamon Gilmore TD said it appeared Mr Roche "is about to roll over and sell out the country's heritage to those who have a pre-determined agenda to put a road through this cultural landscape.

"Minister Roche is not the Minister for Roads. He is the Minister for Heritage. He should not allow heritage issues to be set aside for the convenience of State agencies who are unwilling to think laterally about the Tara issue," Mr Gilmore said.

Green Party environment spokesman Ciarán Cuffe TD said if the Minister issued the licences for such excavations "he will effectively have ignored the views of the National Museum.

"This would be a dangerous precedent in Irish planning decisions".

Mr Cuffe said approving the existing route would be "an act of cultural and historic vandalism".