M50/Carrickmines court action fails

mike65

Dominic Dunne who took an action against the Carrickmines road constrution has lost his case in the high court.

from rte.ie

Work is due to resume tomorrow morning on the final section of the M50 motorway, following a High Court ruling this afternoon.

Conservationists had taken a constitutional action to try to halt work on the site of the ruins of Carrickmines Castle in South County Dublin.

Objectors had argued that the final stretch of the M50, which runs over what is left of Carrickmines Castle, requires an additional environmental impact study under EU law.


They also challenged the constitutionality of two aspects of the amended National Monuments Bill. They argued that it gave the Minister for the Environment excessive powers, and that it did not uphold the constitutional right for the protection of the country's heritage.

But in a 69-page ruling, Miss Justice Mary Laffoy ruled against each of the three arguments. A decision on costs will be made in October.

The man who brought the action, Dominic Dunne, said he had no comment to make following the ruling. However, he did say that as far as he was concerned it was not over.

Mr Dunne's legal team are now considering an appeal, and suggested that no work should be carried out on the disputed site until they had reached a decision.

However, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council's Senior Engineer, John McDaid, says that work will resume in the morning.

Mike.

Tommy Vercetti

Jackson Way get their money, Cullen and his cronies off the hook again, load of bollocks.

sliabh

I presume Dominic Dunne is not surprised. The general view had been that this challenge stood little chance. He is unlikely to do any better in the Supreme Court either.

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/topstories/3960492?view=Eircomnet

Work on road not to start for three weeks
From:ireland.com
Thursday, 9th September, 2004

Construction work on the South Eastern Motorway at Carrickmines in south Co Dublin is not scheduled to get under way for at least another three weeks, by which time a Supreme Court appeal is likely to have been lodged, and may even have been heard.

While work on the removal of part of the Carrickmines Castle's fosse resumed yesterday morning following the dismissal of a conservationist's action in the High Court, work on the building of the road and intersection cannot begin until the fosse had been removed by archaeologists.

Speaking yesterday, the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council director of transportation, Mr Eamon O'Hare, said "work has resumed, but it is archaeological work, it is not building work".

Mr O'Hare described the removal of a section of the fosse as "very delicate work", adding that "the bulldozers won't be in there for a few weeks".

A spokesman for the "Carrickminders" said they were studying the declaration from the High Court that the recent national monument legislation, which gives the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, increased powers, was not unconstitutional.

Spokesman Mr Ruadhan MacEoin said he could not predict the outcome of legal discussions, but he felt a visit to the courts to lodge an appeal was imminent.

Meanwhile, Mr Michael Egan, spokesman for the National Roads Authority, said the authority was still aiming to open the M50 to Leopardstown by November.

The NRA is anxious to ease what is often severe congestion in the Sandyford Industrial estate, which is caused in part by the opening of the Drummartin link road this year.

The Drummartin link road, a single-carriageway road alongside the M50, takes traffic from the current end of the M50 at Ballinteer directly into the industrial estate.

Opening the route to Leopardstown in November would bring M50 traffic within about one mile of White's Cross on the N11.

This would allow traffic from the M50 to access the N11, effectively by-passing the Carrickmines junction.

In the High Court on Tuesday, the court also refused a request by counsel for the conservationist, Mr Dominic Dunne, to delay the resumption of work pending a decision on whether to make a Supreme Court appeal.

The council had claimed that the latest three-week delay was costing € 357,000 a week in additional road-construction costs.

However, conservationists aligned with Mr Dunne insisted that estimates of costs had been shown by the Comptroller and Auditor General's report to be "totally unreliable".

Following the judgement, Mr Dunne said this case, and other legal challenges over Carrickmines, "were never taken" to stop the M50 motorway.

Conservationists were merely seeking changes to the road design to avoid damaging the castle remains.

sliabh

There was an interesting article in the IT last Friday from an NRA archeologist about how while historical sites are being impacted by construction projects at least nowdays they are being found and investigated first (at the stage of the EIS and before the construction starts). This was not the case in 80's where the best that could happen was there was a site archeologist watching what the diggers were turning up as construction occurred. It's not ideal but it's a damn site better than where we were at.

I don't have access to Ireland.com to put it up here but it's worth reading.