The troubled saga of the completion of the M50 ring road around Dublin and the preservation of the medieval Carrickmines Castle thankfully appears to be at an end. Motorists and taxpayers will be relieved.
And preservationists - who are also taxpayers - will have to decide if a reasonable compromise has been reached after millions of euros have been spent delving into the site.
Yesterday's ruling by the High Court in the matter could yet be appealed to the Supreme Court. But such action would mean increased legal costs for the plaintiff, Mr Mulcreevy, who had sought the invalidation of the recent ministerial order, allowing the construction work to go ahead. The judge refused his application on the grounds of delay.
Delay has been a constant factor in this regrettable affair. It was back in August 2000 that the contractors entered the lands on which the extensive interchange linking the M50 with the existing road network is to be built. But in the years since, virtually all the work carried out on the site was of an archaeological nature and it was only last month that the necessary ministerial order permitting the construction of the interchange itself took effect.
Under a compromise proposed originally by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, excavations by more than 100 archaeologists were meant to end in September 2002. This would preserve some of the remains of the castle in situ, remove and re-construct other parts, preserve thousands of artefacts, and allow for construction work on the section of the M50 known as the South Eastern Motorway to be completed in 2004.
The preservationists challenged this decision, having found a legal loophole. The Supreme Court last February granted them an interlocutory injunction suspending further construction work. It appeared to the court that there was some sloppy work on the part of the planners and that a further ministerial order was required under existing law. By last July, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Mr Cullen, laid the necessary order before the Dáil and work began when the statutory delay expired last month.
At this stage, enough is enough. Carrickmines Castle would have remained in almost total obscurity if the M50 had not crossed its site and a decent compromise on preservation has been reached. But those who opposed the route of the motorway have laid down important markers for the future, not least the need for the State and its agencies to devise a more effective means of advancing key infrastructural development.