A campaigner against the proposed route of the new M3 motorway near the Hill of Tara in Co Meath has presented an alternative route for the road, again urging that it be re-routed to avoid the historic site.
A campaign graphic voicing opposition to the proposed M3 route
In a briefing on his legal action against the Government, lawyer Vincent Salafia claimed that 70 per cent of more than 1,000 respondents in a recent survey by research group RED C favoured a different route for the M3, which will run from Clonee to Kells, bypassing Dunshaughlin and Navan.
The campaigner said he had separated himself from the Tarawatch protest group because he did not want them exposed to liability in the event that he loses his High Court action against the route. He said he was personally exposed financially if he loses the forthcoming case.
Campaigners and their advisors are awaiting judgment from the Supreme Court in a case related to the controversy over the Carrickmines Castle site in Dublin. The outcome may have an effect on their legal argument in the Tara case, which centres on technical points in legislation under which the Minister for the Environment consented to the route.
Mr Salafia expressed concern about the fact that no public hearing on tolling had yet been heard, even though it has been widely reported that the Eurolink consortium will toll the route and also receive a State subsidy.
Mr Salafia today presented what he said was a professionally designed and "legally acceptable" engineering solution which would protect the Hill of Tara. The alternative route is up to 2km shorter between Navan and Dunshaughlin and brings the M3 nearer to Trim, which would make sense he said.
"The NRA and the Government are saying 'you must allow us to build this motorway through Tara or you must sit in traffic jams; it's the only solution'. You, the motorist, and the citizen, were promised upgrades and by-passes years ago, do not allow them to foist a destructive, wasteful and unsustainable - but highly lucrative - motorway as a bullying tactic now," he said.
"The only people who will benefit from the construction of the M3 are the toll road operators and property speculators. The same company who operate the M50 toll (NTR) have been selected as the preferred bidder, they will operate it and profit from it in exactly the same way. The prospect of large retail and commercial developments at junctions along the route is a prime motivation behind large land transfers in the Meath area."
The NRA insists that the route chosen makes most sense economically and that it will run further from the Hill of Tara than the existing N3. However, Mr Salafia said Tara had to be considered a complex and that it wasn't confined to the hill itself. He wants the entire complex declared a World Heritage Site.
Green Party TD Ciaran Cuffe said he would like to see the matter brought back before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Environment, which is chaired by the Fianna Fáil TD Sean Haughey.
Mr Haughey has previously said that plans to run the route through the Tara area were "bordering on vandalism" against one of the most important historic sites in the country.
Mr Cuffe said today: "It's about time he put his money where his mouth is and moved it on."
The Green Party TD also said he believed there was public concern about some of the investigation methods currently being used on sites around Tara. Diggers are in operation on a number of the sites and some environmentalists claim they may cause irreparable damage to terrain or artifacts of archeological and historical significance.
Sinn Féin TD Aongus Ó Snodaigh said his party favoured rerouting the road alongside the development of public transport alternatives such as a rail line to Navan.
"My main point is the protection of our natural environment and also our archeological and historical heritage. Anyone who has any understanding of history will understand that the outlying area is often more important than the site itself. If you start to destroy the landscape you lose the sense of what was there."