The first meeting between protesters at the Carrickmines Castle site and the local council and National Roads Authority (NRA) will take place today, more than four months after the sit-in began at the south Dublin site.
A group of some 20 "Carrickminders" have been occupying the medieval site since September in an attempt to stop the routing of the South-Eastern Motorway through part of it.
Up to 50 archaeologists are still retrieving artefacts from the site prior to road construction beginning.
The archaeologists are almost finished, and tensions are growing over what will happen next.
The removal of a 10-foot section of a wall for reconstruction in a proposed archaeological park is imminent, but the protesters said yesterday that they would not allow this to happen.
Yesterday, the National Roads Authority said that removal of this structure was "in the offing" and could happen any day soon.
A spokesman for the Carrickminders said he hoped today's meeting was not being organised as a ruse to distract attention from the removal of archaeological remains from the site.
Mr Michael Egan, NRA spokesman, said the removal of the structure had been announced by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, in September, but he could not say when this would happen.
Mr Vincent Salafia, a Carrickminders' spokesman, said he hoped enough progress would be made at today's meeting to avoid a legal confrontation. However, if progress was not made, the group would continue to work on its legal action to stop construction work.
Apart from Mr Salafia and Mr Egan, the meeting will be attended by Mr Eamon O'Hare, of Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown county council, and Dr Seán Duffy, chairman of Friends of Medieval Dublin.
Mr Egan said that the NRA was concerned that the protest could result in delays to the completion of the South-Eastern Motorway project. This would affect thousands of motorists.
Meanwhile, a Bord Pleanála inquiry into whether a new Environmental Impact Statement is needed for the site is continuing, with a report expected within weeks.
The Government is also preparing a response to a query from the European Commission on certain aspects of the motorway project.
Mr Egan said that these outstanding issues did not prevent work from continuing at the site.
