NRA should stay well away from the heritage trail
This is no idle boast.
They have been spectacularly successful at discovering new and important sites and monuments in recent times.
In the case of Tara they have hit the jackpot! In this instance, however, the odds were in their favour as they were acting in the knowledge that the 'emerging preferred route' for the M3 toll-motorway ploughs through the very heart of Tara's royal estate the core archaeological zone and so it is like shooting fish in a barrel.
Regarding this very option, the NRA's own archaeological consultants, as early as 2000, warned that "no mitigation would remove the effect of this route on the Hill of Tara or on its surrounding monuments. It would have severe implications from an archaeological perspective."
Indeed, Meath County Council's interim archaeological report (May 2004) states that "to date approximately 28 archaeological sites have been confirmed by the archaeological testing" along the relatively short stretch of proposed motorway between Dunshaughlin and Navan. More are expected to be found. Quelle surprise!
Much as we appreciate the NRA taking an active interest in the nation's archaeological heritage (and spending vast sums of taxpayers' money 'resolving' it), is it not getting a bit carried away with its new-found hobby?
Would it not be preferable for them simply to deal with the job of building roads and avoid the temptation of tackling the national heritage head-on whatever the cost financial, cultural or environmental (not to mention the inevitable delays)?
Alas, we now find ourselves in the embarrassing situation where the national monuments legislation, at the NRA's request, is being hurriedly rewritten by the heritage service (Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government) to make the heritage issue go away and to make good bad planning decisions.
Is this the NRA's way of digging themselves out of a hole? There is an easier way simply listen to the expert advice and plan appropriately to avoid the pitfalls. In the case of Tara, is it not high time this poor planning decision was reversed before things get even more embarrassing?
Joe Fenwick,
Department ofArchaeology,
NUI Galway.
WHAT has happened to heritage protection in this country? And when did the National Roads Authority become in effect the National Monuments Authority? The latest annual report from the NRA, and that body's recent presentation to the Oireachtas Committee on the Environment calling for less public consultation, greater flexibility, a grading system for archaeological sites and 'reform' of the "outdated" national monuments legislation have confirmed growing concerns about the wide powers given to this unelected and seemingly unaccountable body.
They are referred to, in their own account, as the "biggest investor in archaeology in the State". (Presumably investment in archaeology is now defined by the amount of money thrown into rescue excavations.)
Major controversies involving roads development and heritage issues, coupled with the break-up of Dúchas and the deafening silence emanating from its successor, the Department of the Environment, have raised serious questions as to what body if any is now charged with protecting our unique archaeological heritage, described as a "key goal of government" by the then minister, Síle de Valera, in 1999.
Development and heritage protection need not be in conflict, but it would seem that when it comes to major State infrastructural projects most notably motorway development there is not only no viable public participation, consultation and appeals process, but there is also no statutory authority which can intervene to ensure the preservation of our unique heritage.
National monuments and environmental planning legislation may well be in need of updating, but not in the direction which the NRA would seemingly wish to take them.
Julitta Clancy, Meath Archaeological & Historical Society,
Batterstown,
Co Meath.
