A legal challenge by environmentalist Vincent Salafia to the proposed routing of the M3 motorway near the Hill of Tara is not proceeding, the Supreme Court was told yesterday.
Mr Salafia said yesterday that as a result of his decision to withdraw his appeal, he will no longer have to pay a bill for €600,000 legal costs arising from his unsuccessful High Court challenge to the proposed route.
When the case was mentioned in the Supreme Court yesterday, Colm Mac Eochaidh, for Mr Salafia, said his client was "not proceeding" with his appeal against the High Court's rejection of his challenge to ministerial directions concerning the treatment of archaeological works on the M3 route.
Mr Salafia, Dodder Vale, Churchtown, Dublin, had also challenged the constitutionality of section 14 of the 2004 Act on the grounds it gave the Minister an unreviewable and unfettered discretion to disapply protections for national monuments.
He started proceedings against the Minister for the Environment, Meath County Council, the National Roads Authority and the Attorney General in 2005, after An Bord Pleanála granted permission for the scheme in 2003.
Last March, his challenge was dismissed by the High Court.
While Mr Justice Thomas Smyth ruled Mr Salafia was not entitled to succeed in any of his claims because of an unjustified two-year delay in bringing them, he went on to consider all the arguments made by Mr Salafia, including claims that certain provisions of the National Monuments (Amendment) Act 2004 are unconstitutional, and rejected all of those.
Mr Justice Smyth ruled that the legislature was entitled to regulate land and road developments in the interests of the common good, even where that involves interference with property rights and national monuments.
Mr Salafia had also asked the court to make a declaration that the greater Tara landscape - the Hill of Tara/Skryne valley - is a national monument or a complex or series of national monuments within the meaning of the National Monuments Act but the judge declined to do so.
After yesterday's brief hearing, Mr Salafia said he was "glad and relieved" that the proceedings were concluded. "It has been a stressful time for me," he added. He said he had decided to drop his appeal and settle following advice from his legal team.
Many of the issues raised by Mr Salafia were determined in a manner not beneficial to Mr Salafia's case by a recent Supreme Court judgment in relation to the controversy over roadworks near Carrickmines Castle.
Mr Salafia also said yesterday that the costs of €600,000 awarded against him by the High Court were not being sought by the State.
He rejected claims that his action delayed work on the M3.
He added that he understood that another legal challenge, unrelated to his own case, was being prepared by another party in relation to the M3 project.
He said he also intended to forward the information he has gathered on the matter to the EU Environmental Directorate which, he said, would determine if the Irish State has a case to answer.