UNESCO has broadened the brief of its fact-finding mission to the Boyne Valley this week to include the alleged threat to the Hill of Tara from the proposed M3 motorway.
Ms Fumiko Ohinata, a UNESCO delegate, requested the Department of the Environment to amend the itinerary for the mission to include a meeting with representatives of the Save Tara/Skryne Valley Campaign.
The request followed a report in The Irish Times that the campaigners were seeking to meet the UNESCO delegates, whose interest is primarily focused on the impact of a municipal waste incinerator on the Boyne Valley.
As part of its visit, the delegates will be told by Indaver Ireland that the proposed incinerator at Carranstown will have no impact on Brú na Bóinne as the site is located outside the designated buffer zone of this World Heritage Site.
The campaigners, who are meeting the UNESCO delegates on Wednesday, have said the Hill of Tara is only 15 kilometres from Brú na Bóinne and "deserves international recognition before it is irreparably destroyed".
They also intend to highlight the abolition of Dúchas, the Heritage Service, and failures by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, to take planning appeals in heritage cases, such as a proposed hotel directly opposite Trim Castle.
Their spokesman Mr Vincent Salafia said they will also be telling UNESCO about Mr Cullen's plans to amend the National Monuments Act to legitimise consent orders for the destruction of such monuments as Carrickmines Castle. "The idea is to try and raise the issue of current heritage destruction here in Ireland in general," Mr Salafia said.
