Railway makes more sense than
M3
Madam, - The recent debate about the privatisation of
archaeology in Ireland (Letters, August 4th.) is
important to future projects, but largely moot to the M3,
as the excavations there are now complete.
We now face only two major related issues at the Hill of
Tara:
1. Does it now make economic sense to delay the reopening
of the Dublin-Kells railway, but spend over €1
billion on the M3 toll road? The M3 is a waste of
taxpayers' money, as Frank McDonald indicated last May,
and a new cost-benefit analysis is needed now, to avoid
economic ruin.
Five motorways - the M1, M2, M3, M4 and Outer Orbital
Route - are not needed in the small county of Meath. The
M3 will pass within five kilometres of the M2, which is
non-tolled. Most of the M3 toll revenue will go to a
multinational anyway. The economic justification for the
M3 has evaporated in the 10 years since it was
proposed.
The National Development Plan, along with the M3, was
based on an assumption of over 4 per cent annual growth,
which is now clearly aspirational. Exchequer revenues
from the property sector, which amounted to 17 per cent
of 2006 revenues, are set to plummet, long-term.
Massively increased fuel costs and severe EU penalties
for carbon emissions were not factored into the
price.
The M3 should be cancelled, as it is still two years from
completion. The Dublin-Kells railway should be
immediately redeveloped instead, as it would take cars
and drivers off the roads, increasing safety and reducing
emissions. The taxpayer would benefit more if the M3
pathway through Tara was landscaped into a heritage
trail, with the razed national monuments
reconstructed.
2. Should Minister for the Environment John Gormley's
proposal to make Tara a World Heritage site be approved
by UNESCO, if the motorway is completed through Tara? The
Hill of Tara is clearly worthy of World Heritage status,
but the M3 ruins the integrity of the site as a
whole.
UNESCO granted Stonehenge World Heritage status in 1986.
One of the central planks of the current management plan
for Stonehenge (adopted in 1998) is the re-routing of the
A303 away from the stones and the closure of the A344,
which runs beside the monument. This year the UK reneged
on this plan, claiming it would cost a billion pounds,
and UNESCO is threatening sanctions. UNESCO should state
its position on Tara now, instead of turning a blind eye
and threatening sanctions in the future.
- Yours, etc,
Vincent Salafia,
TaraWatch,
Dublin 1.
© The Irish Times, 19th. August 2008.
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