Gormley Must Order A New EIA At Tara

Gormley Must Order a New EIA at Tara

TaraWatch is calling on Minister Gormley to order a new Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the M3 motorway and the Hill of Tara archaeological complex, before construction becomes irreversible.

The European Commission for the Environment filed a legal action against Ireland in October on these exact grounds, in light of the discovery of the national monument at Lismullin, earlier this year. Commissioner Dimas has written to the Minister and ordered that a new EIA be performed.

Possession of the site of the Lismullin national monument was handed over to SIAC Construction last week, by the National Roads Authority, after being hurriedly excavated, but construction has not yet begun on the site.

The Lismullin national monument has just been voted one of the Top Ten Most Important Discoveries of 2007 by the Archaeological Institute of America, in the January/February issue of Archaeology Magazine, along with sites like the Solar Observatory at Chankillo, Peru; Urbanization at Tell Brak, Syria; Homo habilis & Homo erectus remains in Kenya and new discoveries at Greater Angkor, Cambodia. http://www.archaeology.org/0801/topten/

An International Day of Protest will be held on January 8. Demonstrations will be held at Dail Eireann and Stormont in Ireland. Irish embassies will be picketed in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles in the US, as well as in Australia. A large demonstration is also planned for the Taoiseach's speech to the US Congress, early in 2008.

Vincent Salafia said:

"It is astounding that Minister Gormley would allow one of the top ten most important archaeological discoveries in the world, in 2007, to be bulldozed here in Ireland, under the cover of the holiday break.

"Minister Gormley must either use his ministerial powers immediately to order a new EIA, or resign his position as Minister for the Environment. If he allows this to go ahead he's blown all credibility as Minister.

Laura Grealish said:

"The NRA were not supposed to hand over Lismullin until January 8, but they have done it early, to facilitate demolition over the holidays, when nobody is paying attention.

"We are going ahead with international protest plan for Jan 8, and calling on our many supporters, including Bono, Gabriel Byrne, Jonathan Rhys Myers, Stuart Townsend, the Chieftains, Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, Louis le Brocquy, and Robert Ballagh to come out in support.

ENDS ENDS

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