Work on the M50 motorway at Carrickmines Castle has been halted for a third time in two years, pending the outcome of a constitutional challenge to new heritage legislation.
The hold-up, which will continue until next Thursday at the earliest, will cost more than €70,000 a day, DúLaoghaire-Rathdown County Council has claimed. The National Roads Authority (NRA) said the legal challenges had degenerated into a "circus", but denied that the delays had been caused by incompetence by any of the State agencies. The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, was confident the legilsation would withstand the challenge in the High Court, a spokesman said.
Conservationists, however, accused both the NRA and the council of exaggerating the costs of the delays brought about by the various court cases, which have effectively halted work at the site for nearly two years. Mr Ruadhán Mac Eoin, one of the founders of the Carrickminders group, said that the council and NRA had in the past provided vastly different estimates of the costs associated with the site, and had failed to provide any detailed breakdowns.
Last Monday work resumed at the site, which is along the route of the final section of the M50, when archaeologists began removing sections of the remains of the castle's stone fortifications or fosse, which lies directly along the route of the roadway. The resumption followed the issuing of directions by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, to allow work to resume at the site.
The directions were made under the National Monuments (amendment) Act, which became law last month. It was introduced following the last successful legal challenge to the work. Last January the High Court found that a previous order by the Minister allowing the partial destruction of the castle remains was illegal.
Yesterday afternoon lawyers for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council gave an undertaking to the High Court that work would stop at the site, with the exception of preservation work, until next Thursday morning at 11 a.m., to facilitate a full High Court hearing into the legality of the new heritage legislation.
The undertaking followed discussions throughout yesterday morning and early afternoon between legal representatives of the council, the Minister for the Environment, and the plaintiff, Mr Dominic Dunne.
During the brief hearing, Mr Justice Michael Peart yesterday afternoon was told that 25 metres of the fosse had been removed out of a total of 80 metres due to be dismantled.
Some 10 metres of this will be reconstructed on the site, while a further 100 metres of the structure would remain untouched. Counsel for DúLaoghaire-Rathdown, Mr Conleth Bradley, said that €9.6 million had been spent on archaeology at the site, while the one-week delay in the work would cost €357,000.
Speaking after the case, the council's director of transport, Mr Eamonn O'Hare said he was "disappointed" that, yet again, the completion of the M50 at Carrickmines, has been put on hold.
"It's also extremely frustrating that this essential piece of infrastructure is not being proceeded with as quickly as we would like. Nevertheless, there is a major issue of national importance to be addressed in relation to the constitutionality of the new legislation."