Taxpayers fund Tara landscape destruction

WITH the announcement of a €30 million bill to rid the Tara landscape of 38 archaeological sites in the way of the M3 motorway, the NRA is finally beginning to admit to the true impact of this ill-conceived development.

It will have a devastating effect on the Tara landscape and dig deeply into taxpayers’ pockets.

Moreover, this estimate is for just 15km of a 60km motorway.

And while it may be packaged as an indication of NRA’s commitment to archaeology, no amount of money will absolve them of the guilt of driving a motorway through this unique landscape, and of the guilt of ignoring their own advisers and a cohort of independent experts who questioned the sanity of building a road through the Tara-Skryne valley in the first instance.

Knowing the scale of some of the sites they intend excavating, and the complexities they will encounter, €30 million is probably a conservative estimate.

The claim that the NRA “always expected that a large amount of archaeological sites would be identified in the Skryne valley area “(note the omission of ‘Tara’) rings hollow considering how hard they have worked to talk down the impact and rubbish independent expert opinion.

In short, the NRA has walked itself, Meath county council and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government into this mess.

Conor Newman

Department of Archaeology

NUI Galway