Minister for the Environment Dick Roche intends to allow the controversial M3 motorway to proceed through the Tara-Skryne valley in Co Meath by issuing licences for archaeological excavations along the route. Frank McDonald, Environment Editor, reports.
Mr Roche's imminent move follows receipt of an 18-page letter from director of the National Museum Dr Pat Wallace, who makes it clear that he is against the chosen route and, in particular, a proposed interchange to the north of the Hill of Tara.
Dr Wallace's view that the motorway would have a "demeaning" impact on the Tara landscape was echoed in a statement issued yesterday by more than 80 academics and scholars worldwide appealing to the Government to change the route.
However, the Minister told The Irish Times last night there was "no way" he could revisit a decision made by An Bord Pleanála in August 2003 to approve the present proposal.
"I am where I am," he said. "This has gone through the planning process."
He accepted, however, that a decision by him not to issue licences for archaeological excavations would leave the National Roads Authority and Meath County Council with no option but to find an alternative route for the tolled motorway.
Dr Wallace's letter deals in detail with each archaeological site that would be affected by the present route, before going on to express grave concern about the visual impact of the proposed M3/N3 interchange at Blundelstown, a mile north of Tara.
Mr Roche said he would take this on board by seeking to have its impact mitigated in some way, even though he believed this was outside his statutory remit.
"I will be asking my department to prepare a detailed response to the issues he has raised."
Asked if he was concerned about legal challenges to his decision, the Minister said he assumed there would be, "so what I have to do is to make sure now that all procedures are properly followed to extent that is humanly possible".
Three of the leading scholars on Tara - Dr Edel Bhreathnach, Mr Conor Newman and Mr Joe Fenwick - said a decision by Mr Roche to allow the M3 to go ahead "will be recorded and remembered as a very dark moment in the history of Tara".
They said the Minister knew "full well that it goes against the advice of the heritage profession", which was concerned that "this unique landscape will be cleaved in two and engulfed in concrete by secondary development commercial gain".
In their statement yesterday, 85 academics and scholars from around the world said Tara's landscape was "of special significance and of international importance", and queried whether it was enlightened to "cut a motorway through it".
They said the existence of a wider landscape beyond the Hill of Tara "can be clearly deduced from Ireland's extensive medieval historical and literary sources. To deny this wider definition of Tara amounts either to ignorance or wilful misinformation."
Appealing for a "mature approach" to balancing infrastructural needs and heritage protection, they asked:
"If the motorway is constructed as currently planned, what does that say to the world about the cultural sensitivity of the Government?"