'LOST' 1983 REPORT SHOWS COUNCIL KNEW OF CARRICKMINES CASTLE EXTENT

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday September 16, 2002 06:14 by Tony Lowes - Friends of the Irish Environment tony at eircom dot net Allihies, County Cork 027-73025

DEVELOPMENT CONSENT “FATALLY FLAWED”

Friends of the Irish Environment have today published on their website a 1983 Report commissioned by the Dublin Planning Authority on the extent of the "earthworks associated with Carrickmines Castle and the possibility of moving the line of the road to avoid them."

The Report, by An Foras Forbartha Teoranta, the National Institute for Physical Planning and Construction Research, Cleary identified many of the features which will be obliterated by the proposed motorway and recommended that "If the road was placed on the south side of the farm it would avoid any interference with the ancient sites".

“Instead”, a spokeswoman for the organisation said “the detailed road design for the current Motorway Scheme places a link road and roundabouts immediately to the north of the farm buildings and the main route of the motorway immediately to the south of those buildings.

“We believe this Report was known to the authorities and informed the basis of the 1993 Dublin County Development Plan which shows a motorway alignment well to the south of the then identified Castle site.

“When the EIS for the South Eastern Motorway was produced n sept 1997, it contained an entirely different alignment which passes directly through the then identified castle site. The EIS contained no reference to the 1983 study.

“The consequent loss of archaeological heritage was entirely predictable from the 1983 report.

“As the commissioning agent, the Local Authorities ‘could reasonably have known’ of this Report and we have been advised that the failure to include this information in the Environmental Impact Statement renders the Environmental Impact Assessment invalid. The development consent is, therefore, fatally flawed.”

Link to 1983 Report: http://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.org/Site%20Areas/Planning%20Cases/Carrickmines/report.htm