A senior state archaeologist today said fears about the impact of the controversial M3 motorway on the Hill of Tara had been overestimated.

IN RESPONSE to Conor Newman’s letter (Irish Examiner, October 9), I would like to point out that rather than “rid the Tara landscape” of archaeological sites, the current archaeological work has added 38 new sites, none of which was known about before our work, because they were hidden beneath the ground with no visible presence on the landscape.