The entire Carrickmines Castle episode has become something of an emotional touchstone for many people in Ireland, writes Daire O'Rourke.
While no one - on either side of the debate - can claim to have a monopoly on "the right answer", I feel it is only fair to explain to the public something of the background to the project.
The archaeology profession in Ireland has changed in an attempt to balance the new realities of a contemporary economic boom taking daily shape over an ancient landscape.
In the 1990s Irish archaeology - like the economy in general - was going through a crisis. Emerging from the doldrums of the straitened 1980s, archaeological companies were few and far between. The State carried out most of the excavations, and archaeological work was scarce.
Ireland was attempting to come out of recession, and heritage was not a priority. Tax-based, employment-generating incentives began to encourage widespread redevelopment of our towns and cities.
The Realpolitik of the time was that the archaeological impacts were not fully appreciated by the State or by the archaeological profession. To some extent the latter was caught on the hop.
Archaeological companies developed and expanded quite quickly throughout the 1990s. Work was plentiful, but it was a profession trying to come to terms with itself, and its raison d'être. Private-sector archaeology was born.
In the early 1990s a new motorway, called the South Eastern Motorway, was planned. The line of the proposed road was seriously compromised by extensive residential development in the area.
The site of Carrickmines Castle was identified and noted; however, the upstanding remains of the site consisted only of a small gable wall and window. A spot on a map identified the site as Carrickmines Castle, but there were - and are - few historical references of note to the castle.
The motorway was designed to avoid the site of the castle, but it was only through the archaeological excavations that it was realised that the castle defences extended into its path.
Apart from the fact that the extent of the castle seemed to grow on a daily basis as more tests were conducted, the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak also held up work between March and July 2001 as some adjoining land contained grazing cattle.
A 2½-year archaeological excavation at a cost to date of €9.6 million was carried out.
So far no report of the excavation has appeared. The motorway has not been completed due to the recurring legal challenges. Meanwhile, thousands of people sit in their vehicles every day, ageing, waiting for a motorway to be completed.
"Quality of life" is a subjective concept. For some it is the completion of the South Eastern Motorway, and for others the preservation of the site at Carrickmines.
As a professional archaeologist I recognise that the only reason the full extent of the site at Carrickmines is known is that there was a large-scale archaeological excavation due to the road being built. No road, no excavation. No excavation, no knowledge of the extent of the castle. This is the dilemma.
In the 1990s there was little or no advance archaeological testing of road schemes. Known archaeological sites were avoided where possible.
Archaeologists were employed to excavate sites found during the road construction process. Earth-moving machines were monitored by one or two archaeologists and, should they happen to spot archaeological features, the machine was stopped and hazard tape placed around the site. Construction then continued all round the cordoned-off archaeologists.
It was a dangerous and unorthodox working environment.
Now, however, the National Roads Authority's decision-making includes input from professional archaeologists who see their task as applying professional best practice to all stages of road-scheme development and planning.
In a nutshell, the authority now has properly thought-out archaeological strategies devised by archaeologists. These include the subsequent dissemination of information, through publication and seminars, one of which is being held on September 9th at the Westbury Hotel, Dublin.
Since 2001 this has involved more comprehensive archaeological input into the planning process and also the development of testing strategies such as geophysical work and test-trenching of known sites but also, more importantly, of previously unknown archaeological sites.
It is now standard practice to carry out some level of testing during the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) stage of a road scheme, but also to test-trench, comprehensively and archaeologically, the entire route of a road scheme post-EIS.
This is revolutionary. Nowhere else in Britain or Europe is such advance archaeological work carried out on such a scale. The purpose of the testing is to identify previously unknown archaeological sites and to allow ample time and resources to fully excavate these sites and to publish the findings.
This has turned into a double-edged sword, however. Through this advance-testing programme we have now located amazing archaeological sites, the excavation of which will add immensely to our knowledge and understanding of our nation's past.
The national road-building programme has given archaeologists and - through our publications and seminars - the public, a unique and immeasurable opportunity to enhance our knowledge of the past.
From new insights into the Bronze Age in Co Tipperary to late Iron Age milling and Viking sites in Co Waterford to early medieval settlement sites in Co Meath, we are now adding to the rewriting of the archaeology of prehistoric and historic Ireland.
It is the tantalising - and complicated - byproduct of the national roads programme.
Daire O'Rourke is senior archaeologist with the National Roads Authority