The proposed route of the M3 motorway near the Hill of Tara was chosen after extensive public consultation involving some 4,000 people and culminating in a 28-day oral hearing by An Bord Pleanála, after which the route was approved, the High Court was told yesterday.
There was no basis to alter that route unless a national monument was discovered, and no such discovery had been made, Paul Gallagher SC, for Meath County Council, said.
The route would be no more visible from the Hill of Tara than the existing N3, and the visual impact of the motorway would be reduced by landscaping works.
Mr Gallagher said the proposed route would not adversely affect the national monument which is the Hill of Tara, and none of 38 sites discovered during archaeological works along the route had been found by any archaeologist to be national monuments.
Mr Gallagher contended that, in his legal proceedings challenging the M3 proposal, environmentalist Vincent Salafia was seeking to subvert the road scheme and to get the court involved in issues and controversies that were of no concern to the court.
Yesterday was the third day of the hearing before Mr Justice Thomas Smyth of the action by Mr Salafia against the Minister for the Environment, the State and Meath County Council, with the National Roads Authority as notice party.
Mr Salafia, Churchtown, Dublin, wants to overturn directions given by Minister for the Environment Dick Roche in May 2005 regarding the treatment of 38 archaeological sites along the proposed route of the M3.
Mr Salafia claims the directions were unlawful because they failed to address the issue of whether the sites were a national monument which required preservation.
Earlier yesterday in submissions for the State, James Connolly SC said that if the general archaeological landscape around Tara was declared a national monument, this would be unworkable and would have consequences for those people living and working in the area.
The case resumes today.