It is a tragedy for Ireland that the current route of the planned M3 motorway, which is due to snake its way through the valley east of the Hill of Tara, now appears to be accepted as a fait accompli, even by the new Green Party Minister for the Environment, John Gormley.
At his press briefing last Friday following the release of an official file on the case of Lismullen henge, his focus was to look to the future of heritage sites that may be uncovered on the routes of other roads. Unless there is a "material change in circumstances", such as the discovery of a royal burial site on the M3, Mr Gormley said he had no power to revisit the decision of his predecessor Dick Roche - taken on the morning he left office on June 12th last - to order the "preservation by record" (ie, destruction) of the prehistoric enclosure at Lismullen.
Over the past several months, the National Roads Authority clearly set out to create so many facts on the ground in its determination to pursue the approved route of the M3 that the hands of a new minister would be tied. It was assisted in this dubious enterprise by the 2004 amendment to the National Monuments Acts championed by Martin Cullen, when he held office in the Custom House; it was specifically designed to facilitate road construction, even at the expense of our archaeological heritage.
The goal of the NRA was also assisted by the Department of the Environment's chief archaeologist, Brian Duffy - appointed during Mr Cullen's term of office - whose expertise and qualifications to hold this highly sensitive post have been queried by a number of independent archaeologists. Mr Gormley has now promised a complete review of the State's archaeological policy and practice, and says this will involve a genuine process of consultation with all stakeholders. This is welcome.
The Minister has also said that, if the review was to recommend amending or even repealing the 2004 legislation, he would act on this by taking it to Cabinet. But whether he would be able to persuade his Fianna Fáil colleagues to accept such a recommendation remains to be seen. Certainly, it is difficult to imagine that those who sponsored the damaging changes made to the National Monument Acts three years ago would be prepared to set them aside, in the interest of heritage protection.
Another initiative announced by Mr Gormley - the proposal that Tara and its environs should be designated as a Landscape Conservation Area - would impose restrictions on developments currently exempt from planning control when the biggest development by far is to be allowed to go through unchallenged.