The final phase of the M50 motorway is facing further delays following a court judgement yesterday to allow a judicial review against the construction of a roundabout on the Carrickmines Castle site in Co Dublin.
Lawyers for conservationists are expected today to seek an injunction halting work at the site, which got under way late last year after a delay of nearly 12 months.
If successful, the injunction would remain until the judicial review is completed. Last night official sources indicated this process could take months, and that the completion of the road now faces significant delays.
Sources at the Department of Transport have indicated that work would have to start at the castle site by April at the latest, if the €650 million road is to be completed by its current finish date of September 2005.
The latest twist in the long-running saga surrounding the M50 was prompted after the Supreme Court unanimously found that a Co Kerry man, Mr Michael Mulcreevy, had established a "substantial" ground for a further legal challenge to the roundabout construction at Carrickmines Castle.
The three-judge court granted his appeal after the High Court earlier this month refused him leave to take judicial review proceedings.
Mr Mulcreevy took the proceedings against the approval last July by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, for the partial destruction of the castle site to make way for a major roundabout for the M50.
Last January, work at the site was halted when conservationists obtained another High Court injunction against the destruction of part of the castle site.
It could not be resumed until an official ministerial order for the destruction of part of the castle site was made last July by Mr Cullen.
In order to allow work on the whole project to continue, the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, split the overall contract in two, omitting the site at Carrickmines. Since then work has been ongoing either side of the Carrickmines site.
The conservationists, known as the Carrickminders, have been arguing for major changes to the roundabout, claiming it to be unnecessarily large.
This has been rejected by the Government as being impossible without serious delays because of new planning requirements.
They have also claimed that it facilitates access to Jackson Way lands. Jackson Way is the subject of investigations by the Mahon tribunal over allegations that payments were made to various politicians in the 1990s to have the land rezoned. Last year the company, whose ownership is surrounded in mystery, was awarded 13 million in compensation in relation to the motorway.