The Irish Association of Professional Archaeologists has expressed concern that thousands of heritage sites are facing destruction because of the major road-building programme in the National Development Plan.
With 300 miles of motorways and roads due to be built over the next three-and-a-half years, the archaeologists feel there may not be enough time to carry out the necessary work on the sites. The association, which held its annual general meeting in Tullamore, Co Offaly, at the weekend, feels it should be consulted on the plan to shorten the time for the road-building programme from four to three-and-a-half years.
However, it was the scale of the development and the shortage of archaeologists to carry out the vital work before construction begins that caused most worry.
Already, according to Mr Maurice Hurley, president of the Irish Association of Professional Archaeologists, there was a shortage of archaeologists to deal with the increase in work caused by the dramatic upsurge in development countrywide.
Most of the archaeological work going on is carried out by private companies.
These companies work under licence from Duchas and are recruiting abroad because of a shortfall in qualified staff here.
On one of the major archaeological sites uncovered in Co Clare, nearly 50 per cent of the archaeologists were from overseas.
They have been recruited from England and Scotland, the US and Canada, France and from the Nordic counties, which are now being targeted by commercial companies, as a new source for trained personnel.
The shortage of staff to cope with the huge increase in excavation work was also referred to at the introduction of Excavations 1998, a publication listing the excavations which took place in the 32 counties in that year.
Reference was made in the booklet to the fact that the increased workload did not seem to have been adequately recognised by the Department of Finance, which holds the purse-strings regarding the employment of staff at Duchas and the National Museum.
Also launched at the weekend was the organisation's own Guidelines for Archaeologists, a handbook for archaeologists north and south.