No Royal Pardon

New Environment Minister Cannot Overturn Tara Decision

By Daniel McCarthy

It's turning into a right royal rumble. Last week saw the inclusion of the Irish nation's spiritual and mythical heartbeat, Tara, on the World Monuments Fund (WMF) list of the 100 most endangered sites in the world. Every two years, WMF announces the World Monuments Watch list of 100 Most Endangered Sites to call international attention to cultural heritage sites around the world threatened by neglect, vandalism, armed conflict, or natural disaster. The New York-based World Monument Fund placed Tara on its crisis list after campaigns and court battles failed to reroute a controversial motorway away from it. Since 1965, the body has saved 420 irreplaceable sites around the world, including the ancient Buddhist temple of Preah Khan at Angkor, Cambodia, built in 1191.

This column last week alluded to the fact that Tara was also central to election pledges made by both the Green Party and the Labour Party to re-route the M3 motorway which as currently stands runs within a mile of the Hill of Tara and bisects the iconic landscape of the Tara Skryne valley. It now transpires that some last minute underhanded unctuous actions by the great gombeen who was the erstwhile Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche have quite literally changed the landscape.

Just before clearing his desk, the outgoing, effectively sacked Minister, signed an order which allowed a National Monument near Tara to be studied and then destroyed to make way for the M3. Roche has defended his last-minute decision, saying he read the documentation, consulted widely and took the appropriate decision. In a blatantly coy manner, he said it would have been a discourtesy to hand over a difficult decision as it amounted to passing the buck. It is a decision which seems to make inevitable the building of the M3 through the Tara-Skryne valley. Incidentally, this comes as hardly sad news to the many Fianna Fáil landowners in the area. The road, which will cost between €800m and €1 billion, is expected to be completed by 2010.

These actions have already cast doubts on the long term future of the Green Party coalition with Fianna Fáil. The new Minister for the Environment, Green stalwart, John Gormley, has said legal advice from the Attorney General's office confirms that he has no authority to overturn the decision to allow the M3 motorway to be built over an archaeological site.

Opposition parties had claimed Mr Gormley does have the power to over-turn the decision under section 22 of the Interpretation Act 2005

The slick politicking of recent days have focussed further light on apparent abnormalities in this concreting over the Tara heritage. There are a number of unusual aspects to choosing the Tara route for the proposed M3. The Government by law had first to commission an Environmental Impact Statement before permission would be given. After researching the route it was told by its own archaeological consultants not to touch Tara "under any circumstances."

"As early as 2000, archaeological consultants, Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd., advised in their report that "the monuments around Tara cannot be viewed in isolation...but must be seen in the context of an intact archaeological landscape, which should not under any circumstances be disturbed....... No mitigation would remove the effects of this route on the Hill of Tara or on its outlying monuments. It would have severe implications from an archaeological perspective".

Sadly, there is little surprise that these recommendations are not contained in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) commissioned by the government of Ireland. Oh, it's the wearing of the green alright. And its looking pretty withered already, with the new government not just yet a week old. All we can add here ladies and gentlemen is to sign on in support at: www.petitiononline.com/Temair/petition-sign.html