Legislation protecting national monuments in the State should not be diluted in order to facilitate road development, the director of the National Museum of Ireland, Dr Pat Wallace, has said. Joe Humphreys reports.
Responding to a call from the National Roads Authority for a new law to aid the completion of road projects, Dr Wallace said: "You cannot legislate for the unexpected. If a national monument is discovered during roadworks then you have to deal with it."
He said that by amending the National Monuments Act, 1930, in both 1954 and 1997, "we are finally getting it right. It would be totally wrong to start watering it down now."
Publishing its annual report this week, the NRA said new legislation was needed to allow work to proceed on the M50 at Carrickmines Castle, and in other locations where archaeological discoveries have been made.
The authority's head of corporate affairs, Mr Michael Egan, said yesterday that in the current climate "it is impossible for the NRA or any other developer in the public or private sector to complete projects in time and on budget".
Speaking to RTÉ on the recent discovery of a major Viking settlement in roadworks on the Waterford city bypass, Mr Egan added: "We are adopting an approach that has been approved by the Department of the Environment and Local Government following consultation with the National Museum. Both bodies are responsible for regulating archaeology and protecting the cultural heritage. So we are doing what we are required by those authorities to do."
But Dr Wallace said he rejected any suggestion that the NRA was representing the museum's position. He noted the museum had called for a full archaeological excavation of the Waterford site, and this had not occurred.
He added that because of a "perceived lack of action from the State" on discoveries such as that in Waterford, there was a danger of the National Museum and archaeologists in the Department of the Environment's heritage division being "taken off the pitch".