[Article] Council confident of making motorway deadline

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/topstories/2306938?view=Eircomnet

Council confident of making motorway deadline
From:ireland.com
Wednesday, 7th January, 2004

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council will meet its September 2005 deadline for completing the South Eastern Motorway section of the M50 ring road around Dublin if there are no further legal actions over Carrickmines Castle, a council official said last night.

He was commenting after a legal challenge to the building of a roundabout over the castle remains failed in the High Court yesterday.

However, campaigners said they would continue to oppose the routing of the motorway through the medieval castle site.

Work resumed on the site in December after the High Court lifted an interlocutory injunction preventing such work. Construction workers were back on site this week after the Christmas break.

Mr Eamon O'Hare, the council's director of transportation, said he hoped this was the end of the legal challenges by protesters. "We have been in and out of court for the past 13 or 14 months. If no further legal impediments are put in our way, our objective of September 2005 [to finish the motorway] now seems readily achievable."

Mr Michael Mulcreevy had sought leave in the High Court to challenge ministerial consent to build a roundabout at the site, but the High Court rejected his application. It also awarded costs against Mr Mulcreevy, the sole plaintiff, a move which conservationists said was "unfortunate".

Dr Seán Duffy, chairman of Friends of Medieval Dublin, said he was confident that the campaigners would eventually win.

He pointed out that the EU Commission's report on the issue was still awaited, and if the Commission found defects in the environmental impact study then funding for the road could be in jeopardy. However, the National Roads Authority said it was confident that the EU report would not pose a serious threat to the scheme.

"We certainly wouldn't anticipate any move on behalf of the Commission to stop the road scheme," said Mr Michael Egan, NRA spokesman.

He said the ruling was "another major development" in the saga. "Hopefully this is the last of it. We have been through the grinder, and we are still determined to continue with our work."

The High Court ruling was described as "disastrous" by environmental campaigners.

Conservationist Mr Ruadhán Mac Eoin denied that this was the last chance for campaigners to stop the routing of the road through the Carrickmines site.

"This is not the end, far from it," he said. "There are still a number of different possibilities, and we are consulting with our legal counsel. An appeal is one possibility, and we are reviewing all avenues."

The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, welcomed the ruling, and said his decision to allow the road to continue had been made in the public interest.

"The implications of continued delay or non-completion of the M50 to the taxpayer, the country's infrastructure and economic activity are serious."

He said he recognised the contribution of archaeological excavations, and pointed out that the archaeological work cost an estimated €6 million.

"Consent is now there to get on with the delivery of this major piece of national infrastructure for the public benefit."

The decision was also welcomed by PD deputy Ms Fiona O'Malley. "I believe the public in general want to see an end to this long-running saga.

"This is a major piece of infrastructure; it is badly needed. Continued delays were costing the taxpayers money and exacerbating gridlock in the area."

Victor

I'd love to know how they are coming up with a figure of €50m. €1m legal feees + €6m archaeology + ?????

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/2308235?view=Eircomnet

Taxpayer to be hit with €50m bill after Carrickmines delays
From:The Irish Independent
Wednesday, 7th January, 2004
Treacy Hogan Environment Correspondent

TAXPAYERS will have to pay an extra €50m because of the delay in finishing the last stretch of Dublin's M50 motorway.

And they will also pick up a €1m legal bill after a spate of expensive court battles in connection with the road.

Work to dismantle the ruins of Carrickmines Castle to make way for a crucial roundabout finally got the go ahead from the High Court yesterday when it rejected a legal challenge by a Kerry-based student, Michael Mulcreevy.

The court ruled that Environment Minster Martin Cullen was entitled to give the project the green light.

A temporary bypass will be built to facilitate archaeological digs under Glenamuck Road, which is now to be incorporated into the motorway.

The cost of the 11km South-Eastern Motorway has soared from €145m to €195m due to the delay of more than a year.

The road project involved 130 archaeologists at an extra cost of €10m after objections to work on the Carrickmines roundabout.

While costs were awarded to the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Co Council yesterday, the Council still faces a legal bill of "up to €1m" after losing several High Court and Supreme Court challenges last year.

Eamon O'Hare, the council's director of transport, said that the extent of the legal costs had yet to be finally determined but could be €1m.

Throwing out the objections yesterday Mr Justice Paul Gilligan said the road involved was very substantial and played a significant role in the country's infrastructural development.

The National Roads Authority (NRA) yesterday called for changes in the country's heritage laws following the latest unsuccessful court challenge to the road. It wants a new legal definition of what constitutes a national monument.

Michael Egan, NRA spokesman, said the law in this area was very general and allowed any individual to claim any feature or site was a national monument.

The M50, which was due to be completed by the end of this year, will not now be finished until September 2005 at the earliest.

The road is aimed at helping to relieve chronic congestion at the end of the unfinished motorway.

Minister Cullen welcomed the decision allowing work to resume on the motorway and said the ruling upheld his right to make an order in the public interest.

"The decision I took last July was based on my overall assessment that allowing construction of the South-Eastern Motorway along its approved route was in the public interest.

"The implications of continued delay or non-completion of the M50 to the taxpayer, the country's infrastructure, and economic activity are serious," he added.

Transport Minister Seamus Brennan welcomed the outcome and hoped it marked the end of challenges to a critically important project and that work could now proceed on completing the South-Eastern Motorway as a matter of urgency.

Mr Brennan said extensive efforts hade been made to preserve, either by record or in situ, the main archaeological elements of the Carrickmines Castle site.

He said the archaeological issues had been dealt with in a measured, systematic, and comprehensive fashion and noted that significant features - a section of fosse, a section of medieval wall, and two medieval structures - will be preserved on site.

The minister said he has requested the NRA and the council to examine, barring further legal challenge, all options open to them to accelerate completion of the motorway ahead of the current date of September 2005.

"The importance of the completion of the South-Eastern Motorway scheme can not be overstated. It is the final, vital part of the M50 C-ring motorway around Dublin, part of which carries in excess of 80,000 vehicles per day."

Green Party TD, Ciaran Cuffe, claimed the High Court decision was "a dangerous precedent" which would allow a minister for the environment "to be judge, jury, and, ultimately, executioner regarding national heritage matters".

He said compromise could have saved much more of the castle and would still have allowed the road to proceed.

Pataman

The council is not out of the woods yet. Thanks to the Kerry student we will now have to wait until God knows when to have this finished, and the long suffering people of Dublin/Wicklow will have to endure crap road conditions for another while

Victor

Originally posted by Pataman
The council is not out of the woods yet. Thanks to the Kerry student we will now have to wait until God knows when to have this finished, and the long suffering people of Dublin/Wicklow will have to endure crap road conditions for another while

Where? Do you mean on the 6-lane dual cariageway to Dublin? Or the fact that the N11 will be separated from the M50 by all of about a mile at Sandyford. Carrickmines does not create any major delay for the rest of the road and I challenge you to prove otherwise.

Victor

http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0127/carrickmines.html

Ruling on Carrickmines Castle overturned
January 27, 2004

(16:10) The Supreme Court has overturned a High Court ruling in relation to the destruction of the medieval Carrickmines Castle site in South Dublin and has granted protestors the right to take a judicial review.The appeal will centre on whether the Minister for the Environment, Martin Cullen, acted within the law when he granted consent for the destruction of the site.Conservationists will return to the Supreme Court tomorrow in the hope of securing an injunction preventing Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Council and the National Roads Authority conducting any further work at the site until a determination is reached on the appeal.

Pataman

I presume from your second post you understand where I am coming from

Victor

Originally posted by Pataman
I presume from your second post you understand where I am coming from

Your not getting off that easily. Tell me how having 10 lanes from Sandyford to Bray is **hugely** better than six.

Pataman

I think you are missing where I am coming from. I am talking about the disruption at carrickmines from the delay and the mess inconvenience that we have to put up with.

Victor

Originally posted by Pataman
I think you are missing where I am coming from. I am talking about the disruption at carrickmines from the delay and the mess inconvenience that we have to put up with.

Relatively little traffic goes through Carrickmines so there is no delay to local traffic. The Motorway can be complete right up to the edges of the Carrickmines site resulting in no extra delay, cost, disturbance or anything else that would not arise anyway. This means traffic congestion at Ballinteer / Dundrum can be completely dissapated.

When a decision if finaly made on Carrickmines the amount of "delay and the mess inconvenience" can easily be minimised.

This appears to be largely a matter of politicians and council workers trying to cover their and their predecessor's (probably corrupt) mess by saying "ignore the archaeology, we don't need the bad publicity for our bad mistakes". No doubt with a little bit of extra sauce on top from the local developers who want to build their shopping centre, etc. next to the Carrickmines interchange, which is essentially in a semi-rural location and no place for a shopping centre.

Pataman

I dissagree about the amount of traffic through the carrickmines area. Have lived here for 7 years and the traffic is increasing all the time. More and more land being rezoned for developement. I agree about the retail stores being built but that is just another example of Park developments buying up more of Dublin

Victor

http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0128/carrickmines.html

M50 work at Carrickmines is halted
January 28, 2004

(20:38) Work on the construction of an M50 roundabout, over part of the medieval Carrickmines Castle site in south Dublin, has been stopped pending the outcome of a judicial review.

Today at the Supreme Court, Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council gave undertakings not to enter the lands at Carrickmines until a determination had been reached.

The High Court will tomorrow morning commence the judicial review of Environment Minister, Martin Cullen's decision to give his consent to the partial destruction of the Castle ruins.

The judicial review will centre on whether a 1996 Order, employed by Mr Cullen, went beyond the power granted under the original legislative act.

In allowing the appeal, the Supreme Court overturned a High Court ruling that conservationist Michael Mulcreevy, of Killarney, Co Kerry had not brought his case sufficiently promptly.

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/topstories/2426816?view=Eircomnet

M50 work faces more delays as court allows judicial review
From:ireland.com
Wednesday, 28th January, 2004

The final phase of the M50 motorway is facing further delays following a court judgement yesterday to allow a judicial review against the construction of a roundabout on the Carrickmines Castle site in Co Dublin.

Lawyers for conservationists are expected today to seek an injunction halting work at the site, which got under way late last year after a delay of nearly 12 months.

If successful, the injunction would remain until the judicial review is completed. Last night official sources indicated this process could take months, and that the completion of the road now faces significant delays.

Sources at the Department of Transport have indicated that work would have to start at the castle site by April at the latest, if the €650 million road is to be completed by its current finish date of September 2005.

The latest twist in the long-running saga surrounding the M50 was prompted after the Supreme Court unanimously found that a Co Kerry man, Mr Michael Mulcreevy, had established a "substantial" ground for a further legal challenge to the roundabout construction at Carrickmines Castle.

The three-judge court granted his appeal after the High Court earlier this month refused him leave to take judicial review proceedings.

Mr Mulcreevy took the proceedings against the approval last July by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, for the partial destruction of the castle site to make way for a major roundabout for the M50.

Last January, work at the site was halted when conservationists obtained another High Court injunction against the destruction of part of the castle site.

It could not be resumed until an official ministerial order for the destruction of part of the castle site was made last July by Mr Cullen.

In order to allow work on the whole project to continue, the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, split the overall contract in two, omitting the site at Carrickmines. Since then work has been ongoing either side of the Carrickmines site.

The conservationists, known as the Carrickminders, have been arguing for major changes to the roundabout, claiming it to be unnecessarily large.

This has been rejected by the Government as being impossible without serious delays because of new planning requirements.

They have also claimed that it facilitates access to Jackson Way lands. Jackson Way is the subject of investigations by the Mahon tribunal over allegations that payments were made to various politicians in the 1990s to have the land rezoned. Last year the company, whose ownership is surrounded in mystery, was awarded 13 million in compensation in relation to the motorway.

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/2433571?view=Eircomnet

Yet another u-turn on M50 castle site as court halts work
From:The Irish Independent
Thursday, 29th January, 2004
Helen Bruce

THE High Court is this morning expected to set an imminent date for a full judicial review of Dublin's controversial M50 route across Carrickmines Castle.

Protesters have claimed Environment Minister Martin Cullen acted as "judge, jury and executioner" in forging ahead with the national roads plan at the expense of the medieval Carrickmines remains.

They said last night they believed a review of the Government's actions would have a major impact on development work affecting every national monument, including the proposed M3 at Tara, Co Meath.

Building work on the historic Co Dublin site was halted yesterday following an appeal to the Supreme Court by campaigner Michael Mulcreevy.

The Supreme Court granted an injunction banning all work at the archaeological site until a judicial review was completed. In doing so, it overturned a High Court Order made three weeks ago which rejected Mr Mulcreevy's request to appeal against the controversial plans.

However, Chief Justice Ronan Keane stressed the appeal must be brought before the High Court as a matter of urgency to minimise the delay.

The appeal was a last-ditch attempt by protesters who have campaigned tirelessly for over four years to prevent Carrickmines being destroyed. The court heard that since an injunction banning any work at the site was lifted in December, parts of the remains had already been dug up, but they would now be conserved pending the outcome of the appeal.

Mr Mulcreevy said: "The sooner they start work building a road around the castle the better." His €100,000 euros, awarded by the High Court earlier this month, were discharged.

Mr Cullen has argued that all proper procedures have been followed and that the M50 roundabout is in the public interest and cannot be moved.

Mr Mulcreevy's fellow campaigner Vincent Salafia responded: ""We are delighted the court is taking heritage laws as seriously as development laws. This has been a long process, but for the first time we are addressing the real issue, which is the minister's ability to approve his own decision to destroy heritage.

"There are big lessons to be learned from Carrickmines, in particular the decision to spend €6m and two years excavating a national monument, and then to spend another two years and more millions defending their decision."

Mr Salafia said those lessons should be learned before work began on the proposed M3 Motorway across the heritage site at Tara/Skryne Valley, which he said would "embarrass Ireland on the national stage".