The High Court yesterday granted an interlocutory injunction to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to restrain anyone with notice of the order from trespassing on council land at Carrickmines Castle, Co Dublin, which was acquired for the South Eastern Motorway.
The lands contain 10 metres of "castle fossa" (walled ditch) and it is proposed to move the ditch from the line of the motorway to another site.
Mr Eamon O'Hare, director of transportation for the council, said in an affidavit that over €6 million had been spent on archaeological excavations at the castle to date and the motorway contract was for €144 million.
He was extremely concerned at the activities of a number of people who, he alleged, had disrupted and delayed work on the motorway following protest at plans to move 10 metres of the fossa. The council estimated that delay and disruption would cost between €50,000 and €100,000 a day.
Mr Colm Ó hEochaidh, for two named persons, Mr Vincent Salafia and Mr Gordon Lucas, said his clients did not concede they were involved in a trespass but were happy to give undertakings not to trespass on the Carrickmines Castle lands.
Mr Dermot Flanagan SC, for the council, said that in addition to the two named people four others, who were served with notice of the court proceedings, refused to give their names and addresses.
Mr Flanagan said there had been a public inquiry in 1998 into the scheme. The Minister for the Environment approved a scheme for compulsory purchase of lands and an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). There was a subsequent legal challenge which was disposed of in December 1999. Lands were transferred to the council and anyone coming into those lands was trespassing.
For the past week there had been people occupying council lands which included the walled ditch. If these people had a grievance they should air that grievance in a proper way. The archaeological investigations had been ongoing for two years and it seemed extraordinary that at this stage there were complaints about the adequacy of the EIS.
The council had diligently complied with the EIS and had done everything asked of it. It had complied with requests for ongoing archaeological procedures.