The Angistora vertiego, a rare snail whose home is in Pollardstown Fen outside Kildare town, was suddenly thrown into the limelight last week. Its involvement brought an element of the bizarre to a protracted controversy, with an implication that over-zealous environmentalists were thwarting a motorway planned to overcome one of Ireland's worst and most dangerous traffic bottlenecks.
Tabloid hyperbole talked of a £50-million project grinding to a halt "all because of this little creature". In fact, a main contractor has yet to be appointed for this project, which has become another case where planned infrastructure is in direct conflict with sensitive landscape.
This latest chapter, it seems, coincided with Kildare County Council indicating that work on the project was suspended because of a complaint to the EU by An Taisce. But there was no "halt, down tools" decree dispatched from the European Commission, which has been examining environmental assessments carried out for the project.
The Commission's environment directorate has been waiting months for details of "further investigation" of the likely impact of the bypass. The conflict is really over a plan to drain millions of gallons daily from the water-rich Curragh Aquifer to facilitate the bypass through it, and its likely impact on Pollardstown Fen, four kilometres away. A Commission source said it was motivated by the belief that there is no other fen in Ireland of comparable importance.
A delegation from Irish authorities went to Brussels last July to assure the EU that the potential impact on the fen had been thoroughly evaluated. Additional reports, nonetheless, were expected to be furnished by autumn with an understanding that main contracts would not be entered into pending their submission to the EU. Against this background, the Commission source expressed surprise at the "snail-stalling motorway" coverage. "It's a bit strange that we now have this story."
Mr Tony Lowes, chairman of An Taisce's natural environment group, said the snail issue was in many respects a "red herring", as many species in the area were of outstanding ecological importance. At issue was "the ecology, and particularly the hydrology, of the fen".
The fen was not like a lake but fed by a series of "tufa" springs and had delicate layers, known as eco-tones, supporting the rarest communities of flora and fauna. Such a life-supply could not be replaced by simply piping water.
A key recommendation from a 1994 inquiry was that the county council "immediately design and implement a monitoring programme that will allow them to properly evaluate existing ground water conditions and dependent flora and fauna in the area that may be affected by the proposed cut through the Curragh Aquifer, and to implement any remedial measures shown to be necessary" with particular attention being paid to Pollardstown Fen.
The council, he claimed, did not form a monitoring committee and begin the vital task of assessing existing bore-holes in the area until June 1997, "18 months after the Minister's instructions and three years after the planning inspector's requirement for monitoring to begin immediately".
This, Mr Lowes said, had to be placed in the context of the view expressed in the 1993 OPW report that "no amount of monitoring after construction commences will prevent damage to the fen in the event that the predictions of the environmental impact study are incorrect and the mitigating measures are inadequate".
An Taisce had no option but to go to Europe with its concerns because of Ireland's failure to implement fully the EU Habitats Directive, he added. Section 27 of the Irish implementing legislation would have allowed it to raise valid concerns.
Mr Michael Egan, of the National Roads Authority, said three preliminary contracts including, the building of a £3 million bridge over a nearby rail line, were almost completed. The main contract was out to tender and arrangements for construction to begin were geared for later this year, subject to the Commission approval.
The NRA head of corporate affairs said as far back as 1993 Kildare County Council had attempted to get a better picture of groundwater impact. Its decision to sink the road was an environment protection measure, he insisted. The council had pursued the monitoring issue assiduously since, but "three years down the line", the An Taisce complaint emerged.
The NRA believed there was "no clear cause justifying concern".
Nonetheless, the monitoring committee commissioned Prof Ken Rushton, a leading UK authority on groundwater, to evaluate 1993 studies and its work since. This led to another British company, Entec, drawing up a new computer model which predicted the impact on the fen would be relatively small.
But, it is understood, Duchas, the heritage service, believed any effect was of concern. While it accepted most of Prof Rushton's recommendations, it has reservations about how water drained from the road is to be collected and transferred back to the fen.
"Duchas wants rectification rather than mitigation. It wants everything to be as it is now," according to Mr Dick Burke, the county council's senior design engineer.
The Netherlands Institute of Geo-sciences is independently evaluating the conclusion that the ecology of the fen would not be significantly affected. Once its findings are submitted to the council, it will be back to Brussels for a final verdict. "The project is seriously behind schedule, by at least a year, and probably two," Mr Burke said. If "redesign" is required, construction will not begin for a further five years and a planned Monasterevin bypass would have to be redesigned.
The objectors, said Mr Sean Power TD (FF), must ask themselves why they did not object when "this vital road" was first proposed, and did not see fit to make a submission to the inquiry. Defending delicate Irish ecosystems in the face of accelerating motorway development has never been easy.