Roache accused Save TaraSkryne of "untruths"

national | rights, freedoms and repression | other press Saturday August 27, 2005 01:26 by Muireann Ni Bhrolchain - Save the TaraSkryne Valley Group muireann at taraskryne dot org taraskryne.org

This is part of the text of an article that appeared in the Meath Chronicle
on Tue, Jun 21st 2005 in an article by John O Donohoe.
(In response to this attack I sent him this letter and a copy to both the Taoiseach and the new CEO of the NRA. Needless to say I have received no response from any of them. As the mainstream media failed to cover a press release on my reply I’m including it here after the article.)

The Minister for the Environment and Local Government Dick Roche
launched a stinging attack on opponents of the M3 route at a Fianna
Fail business briefing in Athboy last week.

On his first visit to the county since giving the go-ahead for the
controversial archaeological excavations on the motorway route, which
began last week, he condemned the untruths campaigners aired against
the motorway and accused them of a lack of open-mindedness.

He compared their campaign to those at the Glen of the Downs and
Carrickmines, which cost the country millions in extra costs as a
result of delays and claims that were unfounded at the end of the day.

“The decision on the M3 route was made in 2003, when the planning
process came to a finality,” Mr Roche told those gathered at a Fianna
Fail breakfast briefing organised by local councillor Liz McCormack.
“My decision was simply on issues relating to archaeology.”

Minister Roche claimed that it was obvious many of those leading the
campaign had never been to Meath, nor had taken part in the planning
process for the motorway, including the Bord Pleanala open hearings
which were the longest in the country.

The minister stressed he was not a philistine, and respected the
heritage left behind by the people of 2,000 years ago, but also
respected the needs of the present population.

They needed infrastructure, which in turn would create employment and
make life easier for the people of Meath.

“It’s amazing that any other country in the world can put a major piece
of infrastructure in place while at the same time respecting and having
careful consideration for the heritage of the area. In this country,
every decision is challenged,” he continued.

Mr Roche explained that he was very open-minded during his consultation
on the excavations, with all parties.

“But I found that these campaigners weren’t open-minded. I was looking
at both sides of the argument but was astonished at their attitude and
lack of respect of other people’s points of view. They were able to see
no argument but their own.”

In response to a question from Eamon Gavigan of Navan Chamber of
Commerce, Mr Roche said that the average delay in projects caused by
court challenges was 92 weeks.

While not disputing the right of people to take court challenges, he
was hoping to set up a special division of An Bord Pleanála to deal
with any cases that may have Environmental Impact Statements involved.

He also suggested the establishment of a special division of the
courts, similar to the Commercial Court idea, to deal with planning
appeals and decisions in an effort to fast track them. “Everybody
enjoys the right to protest but everybody enjoys the right to progress
too,” he remarked.

MY REPLY

Dear Minister Roche,

I was very disappointed when I read of your “scathing attack” on the opponents of the proposed route of the M3 as reported in the Meath Chronicle published June 22nd 2005.

You have accused us of airing “untruths” and “a lack of open-mindedness”. At my meeting with you and the Taoiseach in May both of you commented on my being so reasonable. Therefore, I am quite taken aback that this unreasonable attack on me and on the group that I represent.

I told both of you the truth when I said that there would be no court case if you moved the road out of the Valley. I told the truth when I explained that 38 sites would require excavation and that the Tara landscape was the archaeological, literary, spiritual and historical centre of our past. I told you the truth when I said that the land in the Valley was being bought for development particularly at Blundelstown and that no one could stop this. This is already beginning.

I suggest that it is you and the Government who
lack open-mindedness. I presented you with an alternative, a vision for Meath based on Brian Guckian’s integrated transport plan. There was no discussion of this vision for Meath then and there has been none since. This hardly demonstrates open-mindedness or a willingness to listen to the opinions of others.

You stated then and now that your decision was based on issues related to archaeology and that you had little power. I explained then that you had the power to declare all 38 sites national monuments and ask the NRA and MCC to move the route out of the Valley. Michael D. Higgins has since stated that your powers are much wider than you appear to believe.

You are reported as saying that it was obvious that many of those leading the campaign have never been to Meath. This is patently nonsense. Of the seven core committee members active in this campaign, 5 live in Meath, some within a mile of Tara. Need I say that the rest of us have been to Meath. Are you also suggesting that the experts who worked on Tara for 14 years have never been to Meath? One does not have to have visited Egypt to recognise the importance of the pyramids.

You have said that we have not taken part in the planning process – the chairperson attended the oral hearing as did other committee members. Many other opponents were also present – most of them local to Meath. They were ignored.
Conor Newman who worked on Tara for 14 years and was nominated by the Discovery Programme to give a submission to the hearing was also ignored. Are academics world wide expected to scan the planning permissions in Ireland? No one in academia expects the Government to choose Tara’s landscape as the route for a tolled motorway.

You have said that other countries can build infrastructure without these objections. Perhaps other countries take heed of their cultural icons and do not threaten them with 6-lane tolled motorways.

You maintain that you have been “open-minded” in your consultations and that we were not. You declare yourself “astonished at their attitude and lack of respect of other people’s point of view” and you criticise our inability to see any “argument but their own”. I suggest that you did not listened to me, our group, the experts, the statement signed by 320 academics worldwide or to the Director of the National Museum when we asked you to re-consider the route. We stressed that we were not against the motorway per se only against the section going through the Valley. The Route Selection Report and the initial archaeological reports also warned against this route. Indeed, the new CEO of the NRA, Fred Barry, told my colleague Dr Edel Bhreathnach that if the selection were taking place today this route would never have been considered. If it wrong now, it was wrong in the years 2000-03. He also said that if the Government asked them to move the road that it would be awkward but that they would have to do it. The Government has the power to move this motorway. Why do you not choose to do so? Have you analysed the difference in cost between the unnecessary archaeology on this route and the cost of re-routing?

You accuse us of “lack of respect”. I maintain, respectfully, that I and the STSV group have shown you nothing but respect. I maintain that it is disrespectful of you and the Government to ignore our recommendations that the Tara landscape be nominated as a World Heritage Site. It is disrespectful to ignore our suggestion that a World Heritage Park which would mark real “progress” and economic benefit to Meath without the wholescale destruction and development that this proposed tolled motorway will achieve. The whole academic world agrees with us on this.

Indeed, the insistence on a tolled motorway rather than road improvement, re-opening rail services, a World Heritage Site and/or Park is quite sinister. It appears that the decision to have a tolled motorway predates the planning process and that you and the Government had no intention of listening to any alternative. Who favours this route? IBEC and the chambers of commerce.

You have argued that the planning process cannot be overturned. Is this body then more powerful than our elected representatives? What does that say about the state of our democracy? The planning process was overturned, along with the County Development Plan in the case of Woodstown in Waterford. The Taoiseach also changed the planning permission to facilitate a concert in Slane last year.

You deny being a philistine, a person “indifferent to culture” according to the Oxford English Dictionary. This Government, of which you are a part, has shown itself singularly indifferent to culture by dismantling Dúchas and the Ministry for Culture. You maintain that you respect the “heritage left behind by the people of 2,500 years ago”. The heritage of Tara stretches back 4,500 years and not 2,500 years.

If this is the face of new Ireland it is not a pretty one. The loss of our language is leading to the loss of the meanings of our surnames, personal names and place names and this ensures a loss of appreciation of the wider cultural environment. We have chosen roads as the badge of our economic success rather than Health or Education. What a legacy for future generations. What a myopic vision for our country.

I ask that you apologise and retract the remarks that you have made about me and other opponents to this route. I hope that as citizens of Ireland we are still entitled to protest and voice our opinions. Or do we live in a democratic state?