An environmental assessment of the effects of the proposed M3 motorway from Clonee to Kells in Co Meath has been criticised by Dúchas, the Heritage Service.
The assessment, known as an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), is a legal requirement and was commissioned by Meath County Council as part of the statutory motorway planning process.
Its purpose was to identify heritage and vulnerable environments such as rivers, wildlife, and important architecture and archaeology along the motorway. The 60-km route passes close to the Hill of Tara, part of an archaeological complex, taking in the Hill of Skreen and Dunsany.
However, while the EIS was drawn up and submitted to the Bord Pleanála inquiry under way in Drogheda, its value has been called into question by Dúchas.
According to a number of letters sent to the secretary of Bord Pleanála, and seen by The Irish Times, Dúchas considered "all those parts of the EIS dealing with architectural heritage need to be reviewed".
One of the letters noted: "This department is concerned with all five sections in the underwater archaeological perspective." The concerns include a desire that some sites should be assessed by a qualified archaeologist with experience of rivers and watercourses.
In a letter written to Bord Pleanála last April 22nd, Dúchas requested a new assessment of archaeological features, but also sought to be involved in "a meeting between the National Roads Authority and the project archaeologist prior to any assessment being made".
The letter made a number of recommendations on nature conservation, noting the presence of a candidate special area of conservation and the crossings of the rivers Boyne and Blackwater.
On architectural conservation, a letter from Dúchas dated April 25th criticised the information available and it called for all sections on architectural heritage to be reviewed.
At the oral hearing some 300 objections to the chosen route, bypassing Dunshaughlin and Navan, are being heard. Many of these claim it runs too close to a number of heritage sites associated with the Hill of Tara.
"If you equate it with Newgrange, nobody today would propose building a road between the burial tombs of Newgrange and Knowth, even though they are a mile apart," said Mr Brendan Magee of the Meath Roads Action Group.
A spokesman for Meath County Council said all letters on the M3 would be raised at the inquiry, where they would be dealt with in open forum. It was, he said, open for any side at the inquiry to raise the importance of anything on file and that is what he expected to happen.