The Minister for the Environment, Mr Roche, has said that he intends to issue a preservation order on a 1,200-year-old Viking site in Co Waterford.
The order will lead to a rerouting around the site of the €200 million Waterford bypass, construction of which is due to begin this year.
On a visit to the site yesterday, Mr Roche said that he would be having consultations over the next two weeks with the director of the National Museum, Dr Pat Wallace, before making a formal announcement.
"The decision I have to take is on the archaeology, and the decision I have to take at this stage is whether to issue a preservation order, and certainly I am minded to do that," he told The Irish Times.
Mr Roche also indicated that he would issue an order requiring the excavation of the site, based on the advice of Dr Wallace.
There were calls yesterday from activists for Mr Roche to give a full commitment, along with financing, for the excavation. Ms Christine Shanahan, from the Save Viking Waterford action group, said that their concern was that funding would not be given for a proper excavation.
"Our campaign is for it to be excavated to a full standard, and for an interpretative centre to be built either here [ at Woodstown] or in Waterford, and those are the aims we are working towards," she said.
Mr Roche said that, while he had no direct role in ordering a rerouting around the site, he knew that the preservation order would require a change in the routing of the bypass.
The National Roads Authority has also indicated that it prefers a rerouting away from the site due to the costs and delays before the road could be built.
Archaeologists yesterday accompanied Mr Roche on a tour of the 500-metre-long site on the southern bank of the Suir, five miles from the centre of Waterford city.
Woodstown is thought to be one of the most important Viking sites uncovered in Ireland in recent years. Dating back to the 5th century, when it was controlled by local Irish chieftains, archaeologists have dated the Viking aspects of the site to the middle of the 9th century.
Less than 10 per cent of the area of the site has been excavated, but archaeologists have identified over 600 structures and have collected more than 5,000 artefacts, including Arabic coins, silver ingots, beads and pieces of weapons, including swords. More than 250 lead weights have also been found, indicating that the site was a significant trading post.
However, archaeological staff who have been working at Woodstown have played down claims that it is a site of international importance and constitutes a Viking town.
Mr Richard O'Brien, project manager with Waterford County Council, said that there had been discoveries of "equal significance" in Ireland in recent years, including sites in Co Meath and north Co Dublin. He suggested that Woodstown was more likely to have been a trading post rather than a major town.
Other archaeologists and historians have said that the site is extremely important and have suggested that it may be much larger than the area currently being examined.
Mr Roche said during his visit to Waterford that he had received a report on the archaeological features of the proposed route of the M3 motorway and had visited the Tara/Skryne valley last week.
Conservationists have called on him to issue preservation orders on archaeological sites along the M3 route, which they claim is of equal historical importance to the Hill of Tara.
Mr Roche said that he hoped to be able make a decision on this soon, following consultation with officials, but his remit was "very narrow". He added: "People have all sorts of exaggerated views that I can move mountains and move roads. The decisions on routes have already been made. My remit is clear in law on the issue of archaeology."