I would like to share my time with Deputy Michael D. Higgins.
Why is it that neither the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, nor any of his Ministers of State have not come into the House since the debate commenced? The Minister does not seem to be prepared to answer the debate in the time available to him.
Tara is, because of its associations, probably the most consecrated spot in Ireland, and its destruction will leave many bitter memories behind it.
The above is not a quote from one of the protesters against the proposed motorway through the Tara-Skryne valley. These words come from the London Times of 27 June 1902 and were written by none other than Douglas Hyde, George Moore and W. B. Yeats. Not since then has there been such an attack on Tara. On that occasion it was the British Israelites who were trying to dig up the hill looking for the Ark of the Covenant. Today we are defending the Hill of Tara from a threat much closer to home, an attack perpetrated by the Government parties who seem intent on ripping apart the Tara-Skryne Valley and destroying the intact and perfect landscape forever, employing the National Roads Authority as the instrument for its destruction.
We have been accused of tabling this motion on the basis of emotionalism, yet the road will destroy the most valuable archaeological, literary and historical site in the country which is revered all over the world. Its destruction has been likened to cultural vandalism akin to "ripping a knife through a Rembrandt". This sorry saga began with the proposal for a badly-needed bypass for Dunshaughlin in 1999, but within a year the development had become a motorway. Meantime, the towns of Kells, Navan and Dunshaughlin filled up with more and more cars as the Dublin hinterland spread ever wider into the countryside, compliments of the zoners. Without the upgrade to the motorway and the huge delays, Dunshaughlin would be bypassed by now and the bypassing of Navan and Kells might have begun. Instead the hard-pressed commuters suffer more delays.
We all have a natural emotional attachment to and empathy with Tara. There is not a person in Ireland who has not heard of it or who does not understand its importance. It is not just a County Meath issue. We have a duty to protect Tara, not only for future generations but for the millions of emigrants and all those who claim Irish descent.
I have spoken before of our abandonment of the Irish who emigrated. Members of the Irish emigrant community have been moved to express their horror and disbelief at this proposal on thepetition organised electronically by the save the Tara-Skryne Valley group. One states:
A highway through this is perhaps one of the greatest natural disasters ever contemplated, equivalent to destroying the pyramids of Egypt to erect a parking lot. I am astonished the project has been contemplated in any seriousness.
A second is as follows: "Are you really going to send millions of tyres over the graves of the high kings?" The outrage at this motorway is not confined to Irish citizens or to the diaspora. Academics in the fields of Celtic studies and archaeology all over the world have objected to the development. In a letter to The Irish Times, the president of the American Institute of Archaeologists said:
We appeal to the Irish authorities as a matter of urgency to move this section of the M3 away from the Tara/Skryne valley and to save this precious legacy from our shared past for posterity.
Another letter, signed by 22 of the most eminent archaeological experts in the world in the discipline of Celtic studies, was also printed in The Irish Times. It states:
Tara is a virtually intact archaeological landscape of monuments with the Hill at the centre. Driving a four-lane motorway through the valley will destroy the integrity of this ancient landscape forever.
We urge the Irish Government to revoke the decision by An Bord Pleanála and to choose instead one of the other routes proposed for the M3. We also urge it to apply for World Heritage status for Tara so that it is preserved for future generations.
A further letter, signed by 30 academics from various fields of modern and medieval history from all over the world stated:
This . . . valley is one of the most culturally and archaeologically significant places in the world. Many monuments predate the Egyptian pyramids. It is precisely because it has remained intact, unlike many comparable continental sites, that it holds a special key to understanding the continuous progression of European civilisation.
Is it possible that all these highly respected academics are wrong? Tara is as much a symbol of our national identity as the harp or the tricolour. It dates back 6,000 years and during most of that period it has been used as a the major sacred site in the country.
The National Roads Authority continues the fiction that Tara is confined to the actual hill but this is not the case. It must be made clear and repeated to the point of boredom. The top of the hill that we call the Hill of Tara is only part of the much wider, integrated landscape that was used for thousands of years by our ancestors. We are all aware that motorways lead to development along their routes with a proliferation of housing, petrol stations and fast food outlets. Is that what we want for our premier archaeological and historical site?
The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, who refuses to come into the House for the debate, says he is taking advice from archaeologists but Tara is much more than archaeology. It is the heart that beats at the centre of all the early literature and history of the country. He should take advice from the experts and meet them as well as the National Roads Authority and Meath County Council archaeologists who will present only one side of the argument. He must listen to both sides before any decision can be made. It has been said that he is opposed to the building of a quarry in the Glen Ding Viking site in Wicklow. If a Viking site is worth preservation in his constituency, how much more important is the centre of our civilisation in the Tara-Skryne Valley?
Recently the Taoiseach visited the area and on return told the House he could not see Tara from the route of the proposed motorway. I would like to know who brought him there. It could only have been the National Roads Authority. It did not point out to him that he was standing on Tara, or that he should view the area from the hill, or from the Hill of Skryne. For the best view, he should view it from his helicopter.
The Taoiseach has declared himself one of the last socialists in the country and a republican. Let him also declare himself a man of cultural understanding who has the courage to be Taoiseach in the real sense of the word, that is, the leader or chief who defends Tara from its latest invaders. There is no doubt that the traffic problems in the counties surrounding Dublin are reaching crisis proportions and that decent roads are needed, but not this road. Why destroy Tara to save some undefined sum of money? Would we drive a road through Clonmacnoise or Glendalough or recycle the Book of Kells as scrap paper?
What will be the cost of this destruction? Nobody knows because we have little enough idea of what is there. Six to ten routes were examined by the National Roads Authority but it ignored the preferred route of its experts and chose this one because of a cost benefit analysis. It all came down to saving money. What will be the difference in the cost eventually? What did the longer route cost and what savings will be made when the costs of delays and archaeology have been paid? The latest estimate for the archaeological work is €30 million and the engineer has said the road will not be finished until 2010. What will be the price of Tara? Will it be €20 million, €30 million or €40 million? It is an incredible waste of money on completely unnecessary excavations.
We should learn from the mistakes made in other countries while we have the opportunity, including the dreadful mistake made by the British Government at Stonehenge where the road must be replaced by a tunnel at huge expense while it tries to row back on the damage it inflicted on its foremost archaeological and cultural landscape.
We have the time and the opportunity to avoid this catastrophe. We must re-assess the position, including all points of view, from dissenters and protesters, landscape architects, roads engineers and economists, with a view to finding a proper alternative. A longer more expensive route would probably be cheaper in the long run. We ask that the obvious solutions be arrived at. The bypasses should be built first, the public transport system should be improved so that people are not forced to use their cars adding to traffic problems in the larger Dublin area, the old railway line should be reopened and the Minister should reroute the remainder of the motorway away from the Tara-Skryne valley.
The bottom line is that we should not be here debating this motion. The Irish people should not have to defend Tara from an Irish Government. Future generations will blame this generation for the irreversible destruction of the landscape if this proposal goes ahead. Reacting to another proposal to build a road around Tara, Thomas Davis said:
If they persist in this brutal outrage against so precious a landmark of Irish history and civilisation, then, frankly, I say that if the law will not reach them public opinion shall, and they shall bitterly repent the desecration.
