A legal challenge to the removal of a section of an ancient "fosse" (walled ditch) at Carrickmines to allow the completion of the South Eastern Motorway was refused by the High Court today.
Mr Gordon Lucas, with an address at Willbrook Lawn, Rathfarnham, Dublin, and Mr Dominic Dunne, with an address at Collins Square, Benburb Street, Dublin, had sought the interlocutory injunction against Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Co Council pending a full hearing of legal proceedings. The Council opposed the application.
Following a day-long hearing, Mr Justice Lavan this afternoon refused to grant the injunction and granted costs to the Council. He put a stay for 21 days on the order for costs in the event of an appeal.
It was claimed by the plaintiffs that the Council wished to immediately dismantle a 10-20 metre section of a 200-metre fosse for the purposes of reassembling it at an unspecified location.
The Council argued that the archeological procedures which it had implemented at the site were proper and most successful. The final excavation report, which was the expected and necessary result of the archeological excavation process, would preserve the detailed knowledge and heritage of the site.
In his judgment, Mr Justice Lavan said he had interrupted a case at hearing to take the injunction application. He was deeply conscious of the significance to the ratepayers of Ireland of delay in the construction of the motorway.
Mr Justice Lavan said he accepted that substantial weekly sums of more than euro 50,000 would be claimed by contractors for the Council in relation to the time periods when they were kept off the lands. The impact of granting an injunction would be to procure a breach of contract.
Counsel for the plaintiffs in yesterday's application said his clients had reserved their rights to have recourse to the courts.