I come from the Hill of Tara and thank the committee for giving me this opportunity to be a voice for Meath Citizens for the M3 Motorway in Oireachtas Éireann. It is our hope our democratically elected Deputies can help expedite the building of the M3 for us and hundreds of thousands of other citizens and commuters north of Dublin.
I can remember happily driving an ass and cart on the Navan Road at Ross Cross just 20 years ago. In the words of Bob Geldof, that road is now a rat trap that kills our neighbours. According to the M3 route assessment report, that would be seven times less likely with the new road.
Meath Citizens for the M3 Motorway began in January, when eight frustrated and demoralised local people met at a farmhouse in the shadow of Tara. We were frustrated by the near impossibility of travelling on the N3 and demoralised by the incessant barrage of misinformation and propaganda against the proposed relief M3 route being promulgated in every sector of the media. In the meantime, no voice for the M3 was being heard.
Until that time, one month ago, we, like many other citizens, refrained from forming a pro-M3 group since we were confident that the democratic process would take its course on our behalf. When it became apparent that this exhaustive process was in danger of being frustrated, we felt there was a need for groups like ours to balance the debate and help avoid a devastating and costly delaying of the project.
On that evening one month ago, we were eight. Now, after just three weekends of work, we can legitimately claim to speak for over 5,000 of our fellow royal county citizens who have gladly signed our pro-M3 petition. Since our surveys show a constant 90% in favour of the M3, we have no doubt that we would have the backing of 100,000 or more of County Meath's 135,000 citizens as we come before the committee today.
I will bring the committee up to date on some of the surveys we have undertaken. We monitored morning traffic at the entrances onto the N3 at Garlow Cross, Ross Cross and Killeen Cross — that is, between Navan and Dunshaughlin — and at Fairyhouse Cross at Black Bull. At each of them we found queues, some up to 15 minutes, as those at the head of the line played Russian roulette trying to slot into the flow of traffic. According to NRA figures, the section of the N3 between Navan and Dunshaughlin is made for a safety capacity of 11,000 vehicles per day. It now carries almost double that figure, an average of 21,700. It is estimated that in 20 years' time the number will have doubled again. We are heartened by the estimate that the provision of the M3 could cut the number of accidents in this area by between 30% and 50%. We also note a recent study from University College Cork which shows that a substantial saving of lives would result.
We monitored traffic over a 12 hour period at the Little Oberstown Cross where the Tara to Rathfeigh and Skryne to Ratoath roads meet. In that period a total of 6,900 vehicles went through the cross, most of them trying to avoid the N3 and heading for the S bends of Ratoath village which now caters for a huge volume of traffic every day. One estimate we were given was 16,000 vehicles. I do not quite accept that figure but it is thousands of vehicles through a tiny village that should not have to cater for that volume of traffic.
To counter the arguments of the anti-M3 lobby which intimated that nobody wants this road as currently planned, Meath Citizens for the M3 Motorway did a complete survey of every house in the Tara to Skryne area. In all, 318 families were visited over one weekend, of whom a total of 285, a full 90%, were happy to sign our petition for the M3 on the selected route. They know the area around Tara and Skryne, that the planned M3 will not go through the Hill of Tara and that our beloved Tara will not be destroyed, as was twice said in one of our top newspapers. They also know that the chosen route is the only viable one for the area. The one west of Tara would be clearly visible from the Hill of Tara along its whole length past the hill. The one to the east would slice through the community of Skryne and have a serious impact on 35 houses between Dunshaughlin and Navan as compared with just two on the chosen route. The area covered by our survey was just about 8 square miles in what is the very centre of the debate, Tara, the Gowra Valley and the Hill of Skryne. We are sure the result could be replicated in similar sized areas all over the county.
Over the last three Saturdays Meath Citizens for the M3 Motorway brought an information board to local shopping centres where people were asked to sign the pro-M3 petition. An amazing number of people with whom we talked were still of the opinion that the road would go through the Hill of Tara and were delighted to find out just where the route went by looking at a map like the one we have here. During those three Saturday sessions in Navan and Dunshaughlin, 5,000 signatures were gathered. We are convinced this is merely the tip of the iceberg of support for the M3 in County Meath, County Cavan and further north.
We would like to make a few general comments that might be relevant to the deliberations of the committee. We are convinced that objections about lighting at Blundelstown interchange are being adequately dealt with by the NRA and Meath County Council. We also hope that through the efforts of Meath County Council and the NRA landowners will be kept more fully up to date as to their current position. It is not fair for them to be kept in limbo. In addition, landowners and farmers along the route are in great danger when they venture onto the N3 with their machinery. They are also very conscious — they have mentioned this to us — of the delays they know they cause to motorists but in reality they can do nothing about it.
We would like to see the proposed management plan for Tara brought on stream with the building of the M3 and wish that archaeologists and academics who have spoken out against the M3 would dissociate themselves from the anti-M3 lobby and join with the Government in embracing Tara in a plan that ensures the hill's careful preservation for generations to come. I know archaeology does not come within the committee's brief but we would like to see the best archaeology used in building the road. We urge the committee to back local proposals for the creation of a museum somewhere in the area between Dunshaughlin and Navan for the display of artefacts found along the route.
Misinformation about the M3 in the past year or so for whatever reason or agenda is, in our conviction, a massive and terrible hoax played on people at home and abroad who revere the Hill of Tara. Through carefully worded propaganda, they have been hoodwinked into thinking the proposed M3 goes through the Hill of Tara. Nothing could be further from the truth. The proposed M3 poses no more threat to the Hill of Tara than the River Dodder poses to Leinster House. If there were a real threat to Tara, the most potent and sacred symbol of our royal county, we Meath citizens would be the first to protest against it. In addition, this anti-M3 misinformation has been widely promulgated on the Internet. We find this insulting to our nation. It is as if the Irish people care little for the Hill of Tara. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The campaign against the M3 has been brought into our schools through a Hill of Tara art competition. Children from the age of four to 16 years are being asked to paint or write a special piece in response to the proposal to put the M3 through the Tara-Skryne valley and can be based on the rich myths and legends associated with Tara. In the leaflet circulated to school principals there is no clarification regarding the proposed route being 1.5 miles from Tara as it is understood by 99% of our people. Neither is there mention of the fact that there never was a place called the Tara-Skryne valley until now.
For those opposed to the building of the M3, its impact on the Hill of Tara and what is now called the Demesne of Tara appears to be their only major objection. We, the Meath Citizens for the M3 Motorway, reject these arguements as no more than pure theory. Are we to inflict more and more misery on the people of Meath for the sake of exaggerated claims about the destruction of Tara? We say, "No, we dare not do that." If this road is allowed to be stopped or delayed on the basis of the arguments levelled so far against it, then the future of every bit of necessary infrastructure in our land is called into doubt.
A long drawn out argument or litigation against the M3 will do more damage to the peace and tranquility of the wonderful Hill of Tara than any motorway one and a half miles away would ever do. We, Meath Citizens for the M3 Motorway thank Deputies and Senators for their attention and services and ask their help in progressing the much needed project which poses no threat to our beloved Hill of Tara but which will bring travel relief to thousands of Meath citizens.
