Building our future while saving our past

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.

Meath has attracted settlement for thousands of years because of its fertile lands, and each generation has changed the landscape hiding many sites which only archaeological investigation today can locate.

Mr Newman dismisses the planned M3 as an "ill-conceived development" while he acknowledges that there are huge traffic problems along the existing N3. It can hardly be "ill-conceived" to address this problem on behalf of the population while having full regard to all planning and environmental statutory obligations.