Thank you, Chairman, and Members of the Oireachtas for inviting us to address the joint committee.
As our statement unfolds I hope members will begin to realise how important this issue is and how crucial their opinion is to the preservation of the most important monument in Ireland. We are addressing the decision to construct a section of the M3 motorway from Clonee to Kells through the valley between the hills of Skryne and Tara. Who are we? I represent local interests, archaeologists, historians and scholars of Celtic studies from Ireland and throughout the world, environmentalists and scientists. I come with the support of highly influential academics and institutions in Britain, Europe and the United States to express their deep concern about this decision.
Since 1992, Mr. Conor Newman, Mr. Joe Fenwick and I have conducted large-scale research to the highest academic standards into the archaeology and history of Tara and its landscape. This was done under the aegis of the Discovery Programme, a State-funded body established to work on major archaeological projects. We have published a considerable body of information including, in 1997, the results of an extensive archaeological survey of the hill itself and its hinterland. This is what leads us to the issue of concern here.
Why is there such concern? As we all know from primary school onward, Tara is a cultural icon of this island and has been since pre-history. We now know it was the centre of an exceptional kingship and a pre-Christian sanctuary and burial ground since the Neolithic period. When we began to work on Tara in 1992, the definition of the site was simply the hill itself. We knew, from international comparisons of such centres of kingship throughout the world, that Tara must have involved a wider landscape. These are ceremonial complexes with known patterns of monuments in the landscape. Indeed, that is what our research found. We redefined the landscape of Tara. We established that there was a clearly defined archaeological and historical landscape, that it was formally demarcated in the Iron Age - just before and after the birth of Christ - and that a ring of defensive fortifications was constructed around the hill. This demarcation lasted through medieval and later history to the present day. The modern Barony of Skryne approximately demarcates the earlier prehistoric landscape.
The M3, as it is proposed, cuts right through the middle of this landscape. This is a highly sensitive and internationally recognised type of ceremonial landscape. This is why we have the support of academics throughout the world. They recognise this kind of landscape. It is a landscape which should only be subject to disturbance as part of a strategically planned research project. Such a plan has been slowly and carefully developed by the Discovery Programme since 1992.
Was this importance not recognised during the planning process for the M3? Indeed it was. All the preliminary work done during the first stages of the process strongly recommended that this zone should be avoided. As we went through the process, this advice was watered down to a point where it was almost contradicted by the archaeological consultants. They commenced the processing by strongly suggesting we should not touch a particular area and ended up saying it was all right to do so.
A geophysical survey carried out for the consultants as part of the planning process illustrated that Tara is a high archaeological content zone. Currently, we are receiving the same standard reply from all the authorities we meet - the NRA, Meath County Council and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government - the due process has been gone through, the planned route has been approved by An Bord Pleanála and we are too late.
Many among our delegation attended the oral hearing and gave evidence, to no avail. Prior to the decision on 18 March 2003, as members will note from the booklet, the joint professors of archaeology in Galway, Dublin, Trinity and UCD, Queen's, Oxford University, York and Exeter, the chairman of the Discovery programme and Conor, Joe and myself wrote to the Minister for Transport, Deputy Séamus Brennan, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Cullen, and the Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism, Deputy John O'Donoghue, expressing our concern at the planned route and warning it was an important landscape but we received no reply.
In the case of Tara, a number of flaws were evident in the planning process. The primary consideration for this section of the M3 should always have been a cultural consideration, not an economic or traffic one. This is an exceptional case. The cultural significance of the area in this instance should have been top priority. That was not so.
We were not consulted as experts, even though our work is in the public domain. Indeed, Ministers have launched our books. The preliminary acknowledgement of the archaeological consultants employed by the NRA and Meath County Council that this zone should be avoided was watered down. The geophysical survey carried out as part of the EIS, despite its shortcomings, confirmed that this zone was of significant archaeology. Alternative routes were not subjected to the same scrutiny.
Where are we now? There are two levels in this debate - one political and one involving best archaeological practice. I address the political points to members of the committee. A mistake has been made in deciding to route this section through this highly sensitive landscape. We are told it is too late, the route cannot be changed, due process is being followed, tenders and contracts are being issued. Are we dealing with a system that is so inflexible it cannot deal with mistakes or exceptional cases? Hundreds of archaeological sites are being dealt with under the national development plan. We accept that; it is part of development. However, there must be some way of dealing with this type of case or with situations whereby something exceptional is unexpectedly found. I am afraid the solution to such cases lies with politicians from whom the NRA and county councillors take their cue. That is what we have learned.
If we do not form a policy to deal with the exceptional case, we will continue to have unnecessary controversy and rancour such as took place at Carrickmines and Tara. We are told high standards of archaeological excavation will be followed. This area should only be touched as part of research excavation and not, as is the case as we sit here, rapid soil stripping and test trenching of the route corridor.
Having attempted all avenues, we come to the committee, as our elected representatives, to plead with it regarding this special landscape of national and international importance. Members know Tara is important. As a person who has worked on it for ten years, I can tell members that the construction of the motorway through the valley between Tara and Skyrne would be an unambiguous declaration that the protection of Ireland's heritage was no longer a core value of this nation. Are we to be recorded in history as making that statement?