FRESH LEGAL CHALLENGE TO M3 ANNOUNCED
29/08/07
The Campaign to Save Tara today
announced details of a legal challenge
to the
proposed M3 Motorway
through the Tara/Skryne Valley in Co. Meath. The
Campaign
claims that
this case is being taken in the public interest and only
after all
other
democratic avenues have been exhausted.
In a message of support read out
at today’s launch, Seamus Heaney said, “It
could be said that the Campaign to
Save Tara is putting its case in ‘the
name
of dead generations’: for the
past two millennia those generationS
regarded Tara
as a place invested
with sacred as opposed to secular value. Protest
against the
loss of this
value remains an imperative.”
At the launch of the legal challenge today
were prominent archaeologists
Joseph Fenwick and Professor George Eogan, MEP
Kathy Sinnott, celebrated
author
Morgan Llywelen, as well as members of
the Campaign’s legal team. Among the
groups represented were An Taisce and
the Meath Archaeological and
Historical
Society.
The named
plaintiff is Michael Canney, a prominent member and former
spokesperson of
the Campaign. Among the named defendants are the
Minister for
the
Environment, the Minister for Transport, the National Roads
Authority
and
Eurolink Ltd., The consortium awarded the construction and tolling
contract.
The action, by means of a plenary summons which was served on
the named
defendants last week (see details attached), is seeking a ruling
that
construction should be halted on the M3 pending the outcome of a case at
present
before the European Court of Justice relating to the Lismullen
National
Monument.
A number of other claims are made including a
ruling that the Minister
for the
Environment has failed in his duty to
protect Irish National Heritage as
required under Article five of the
Constitution. Additionally there are a
number of claims relating to the
procedures adopted in relation to
Environmental Impact
Assessments.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Here
is Michael Canney's statement read out at the launch today
Statement by
Michael Canney, plaintiff, Save Tara/M3 Legal Case
29th August
2007
It has never been my ambition to put my name forward in a legal
challenge, especially a challenge against such a seemingly impregnable
array of powerful political and economic forces. I have done so only as
a last resort, and only because it is absolutely essential that the
silent majority who oppose this road are given a final chance to have
their concerns heard before the courts. While the political and
commercial backers of this enterprise have seen fit to ignore public
opinion up to now – they cannot so easily dismiss the judiciary.
The
debate which has raged unevenly between heritage and economics since
the
Wood Quay protests of the eighties have finally reached its’ nadir
at Tara,
a low-point that even the most pessimistic among us could not
have
anticipated. The Tara landscape – the cradle of our civilization,
an icon of
our nationhood, the mythical heart of our country is to be
defaced in the
name of private profit and political expediency.
The damage already
wrought on the landscape cannot be undone; and the
destruction of individual
sites over the last six months are individual
and collective acts of
vandalism. However, the integrity of the
landscape as a whole, its stillness
and physical beauty are still to be
preserved and so this struggle will be
conducted by any means and
through any mechanism available to the Save Tara
Campaign.
No matter how much damage has been done up to this point
the road
remains totally unacceptable along its present alignment. Over the
last
few months people say to us ‘but they are going to build it anyway’, or
‘sure isn’t the damage already done’. In reply we argue that this road,
like Tara itself is a signifier – a signifier of values and attitudes
–this debate embodies not only the value we place on our heritage and
history, but also signifies how we might deal with the challenges of an
energy-poor future and the massive sociological changes that are
necessary in order to meet these challenges.
The placing of
economic and sectoral interests, above those of the wider
environment and
society, is one of the main reasons we find ourselves in
the environmental
mess we are in. Unregulated and profit-driven property
development, both
residential and commercial, is the primary cause of
the transport crises
facing the people of Meath. A shocking fact, little
reported in the acres of
coverage of this issue is that the route of
this road was chosen to increase
traffic volumes, and therefore tolling
profits. This road is engineered to
increase car-dependecy. Could our
transport planners possibly get any more
cynical and profit-driven?
Our friends and neighbours in the European
Union have voiced grave
concerns about this motorway. To deal with one
specific concern – the
Commission have questioned how the Lismullen National
Monument, a
massive structure over 80 meters in diameter could have been
missed
during surveying. The EU maintains that, having missed the structure
initially, it’s subsequent discovery should automatically lead to a new
Environmental Impact Assessment. There would seem to be a prima facia
case that the EIA process is inadequate at best. A less benign
interpretation is also possible; our summons maintains that in only
carrying out a EIA on one route – the so-called ‘preferred route’
through the Valley, the EIA process is actually subsumed to a function
of the route selection process, as opposed to an objective basis upon
which to decide upon one route as opposed to another.
It is in the
public interest that the procedural and legal shortcomings
of the M3 debacle
be further examined in the courts. It is in the public
interest, not only
because of the importance of the Tara landscape in
and of itself, but also
because this private motorway is iconographic of
future planning, transport
and environmental policy in this country. Who
can look at the Dublin Civic
offices now and not regret the lost
opportunity of a public park; sweeping
up from the river Liffey to the
Christchurch Cathedral, a potential resource
of immeasurable cultural,
educational and aesthetic value? At a time of
unprecedented prosperity,
who can say that the M3 will be anything but a
source of bewilderment
and regret to future generations?
The
preservation of the Tara landscape can our moment of reflection and
renewal,
a moment when we realised that our environment is a finite
resource and also
an opportunity to take strength from a proud and
ancient past to meet the
challenges ahead.