The Department of the Environment has said it would be "bizarre" for the director of the National Museum, Dr Pat Wallace, to give evidence to an Oireachtas committee on the archaeological sites along the proposed M3 route before advising the Minister for the Environment, Mr Roche.
The Department was responding to a letter from the chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on the Environment, Mr Seán Haughey, to Mr Roche, asking that Dr Wallace be allowed to appear before the committee.
Dr Wallace cancelled a planned appearance before the committee last week after advice from the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism not to attend, on the basis that he had a statutory role to advise Mr Roche, who has to decide whether to grant excavation licences for almost 40 sites along the route.
Mr Haughey yesterday wrote to Mr Roche and to the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr O'Donoghue, asking them to allow Dr Wallace to attend, but a spokeswoman for Mr O'Donoghue said nothing had changed.