Government gets a grilling over Tara at EU court (30/6/09)

Two years after the European Commission began legal action against Ireland over the construction of the M3 motorway at Tara, the case is finally underway at the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg this week.
The dispute centres on an order given in 2007 by then Environment Minister Dick Roche to excavate and record a prehistoric henge at Lismullin, County Meath which lay in the path of the motorway. The Commission says this was in breach of the EU directive that requires an Environmental Impact Assessment to be carried out on any project that could have a significant effect on archaeological heritage.
The site was only identified in 2007, and could not have had any bearing on the original EIA. The government’s defence is that Minister Roche’s decision was made under the National Monuments Act, which does not automatically require a second EIA upon the discovery of a new archaeological site.
Ireland East MEP Nessa Childers says the underlying problem is how the EU directive is transposed into Irish law. The former Green Party Councillor said the M3 saga points up the broader need for a ‘fundamental review’ of planning law in Ireland. ‘You don’t have to be a councillor for long to know that there are several problems with Environmental Impact Assessments,’ she said.
Campaigners against the motorway have called for all road-building work to cease for the duration of the court case. They’re also appealing to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to intervene during his visit to Ireland next week.