Liam Reid
Government plans for tolled motorways across the State are facing a constitutional challenge from a local action group in Co Meath.
Campaigners against the proposed new M3 motorway, which passes close to the Hill of Tara, have sought legal advice on the possibility of mounting a constitutional challenge to the tolled motorway.
The 60-kilometre stretch, from Clonee to north of Kells, Co Meath, which is costing 680 million, was given permission last August by An Bord Pleanála. The motorway will bypass Dunshaughlin, Navan and Kells and will be tolled at two points along its length.
The newly-formed Save Tara-Skreen Valley Group, made up of conservationists and local residents, is examining the constitutional position on compulsory purchase orders for tolled roads.
The group believes there could be a serious conflict surrounding the fact that, except in cases of public good, the State does not have rights to uses compulsory purchase orders.
According to group spokesman, Mr Vincent Salafia, the fact that a private firm will operate the toll road could be seen as a profit-making venture rather than public good project. "There is a serious legal issue here," said Mr Salafia. "Whatever firm wins the tolling contract stands to make 2 billion over a 30-year period."
He said the group has engaged two legal teams who are examining the constitutional issues surrounding the tolling plans.
The group is planning to meet local landowners later this month, to discuss taking a test case on behalf of a landowner against the compulsory purchase orders.
"Letters have already gone out putting people on notice that their land will be acquired under compulsory purchase order."
The Tara-Skreen group is campaigning against the road on the basis that it passes too close to the historic Hill of Tara, and within an archeological complex of Tara-Skreen Valley, which Mr Salafia describes as one of the "most important" of its kind in the world.
Mr Salafia had denied the group is an extension of the group which brought the legal challenge against the final stage of the M50 motorway over the partial destruction of the Carrickmines Castle site. Mr Salafia was heavily involved in that group.