TaraWatch

Irish Times (Oct 16 2009): New Bill to protect Irish landscape

HERITAGE COUNCIL 2009 IRISH LANDSCAPE CONFERENCE
TULLAMORE, CO OFFALY, IRELAND. OCTOBER 13th-16th 2009

“Landscape” means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors.  10 years on from the successful conference held by the Heritage Council in 1999 – ‘Towards Policies and Priorities for the Irish Landscape’, this conference will evaluate progress on the actions that emerged and the changes and pressures that have shaped the Irish landscape in 2009.

The Conference will look beyond 2009 and assess how effective our current strategic and legislative provisions are in securing the sustainable development of our landscapes and in providing for effective landscape planning, landscape management and landscape conservation.  The conference will be firmly bedded in the approach advocated in the European Landscape Convention. Cultural and natural landscapes will be considered in an integrated manner using a multidisciplinary approach. The purpose is to seek to identify the most appropriate mechanisms to secure long-term benefits for communities and their landscapes alike. Examination of the relevance of our landscapes to the lives of the communities and individuals who live in, work in and visit all our landscapes on a daily basis will be a central theme for discussion.

A range of international, European, national, regional and local speakers is being lined up to address the conference. These include speakers from the Council of Europe, the Landscape Observatory in Catalonia, Parks Canada, IUCN, ICOMOS, Natural England, Teagasc, Failte Ireland, Coilte, the EPA, NRA, Local Authorities, Irish Universities, Professional Institutes, farming organisations and local community groups. In addition there will be workshops and general discussion sessions to allow for participation by all attending.

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An aerial view of the M3 near Clonee, Co Meath. Moving north towards Kells, heavy machinery, diggers and cranes continue to work on long stretches on what appear to be the basic outlines of junctions and interchanges. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill

Contentious M3 is 90% complete, says NRA

The Irish Times – Wednesday, September 16, 2009

THE CONTROVERSIAL M3 motorway in Co Meath, which has been the subject of several years of protests, is now almost 90 per cent complete, the National Roads Authority (NRA) has said.  At almost 60km of main motorway and a further 40km of link roads and interchanges, the it is one of the longest motorways under construction in Europe. The M3 is not scheduled to open until July 2010. Work could still finish ahead of this scheduled date, but not before mid-spring next year, the NRA said. Beginning at Clonee, north of the Dublin-Meath border, it runs to Kells where it switches to a motorway-grade dual carriageway for the last 10km to the Cavan border. It will have two toll booths, charging €1.40 for cars. Dunshaughlin, Navan and Kells are bypassed along the route.

Controversially, the route runs just over 2km from the Hill of Tara, and adjacent to the Lismullin national monument and the hill fort of Rath Lugh. Protesters have occupied these latter two sites, blocking the road’s construction at various times in recent years, most memorably in March last year when conservationist Lisa Feeney, known as “Squeak” shut herself inside a chamber at the bottom of a 33-foot tunnel at Rath Lugh for 60 hours.   No protesters are currently blocking or picketing any part of the motorway, and Vincent Salafia of Tarawatch said that such action is unlikely to recur. “The frontline part of the campaign is pretty much over. There are people still protesting in the area, but not on the front line of the road. At this stage any protest on the road would be a largely symbolic gesture, but that doesn’t mean the campaign is over.”

Recent changes to the criminal trespass laws had made such protests more difficult, Mr Salafia said, but he said Tarawatch was continuing to campaign against the road and hoped it might still be moved, even after its construction. Moving the road would be a possibility particularly if the Hill of Tara received Unesco World Heritage designation, Mr Salafia said. Tarawatch was also continuing to bring complaints against the NRA to EU bodies in relation to the destruction of ancient archaeology and heritage. Mr Salafia has criticised the cost to the taxpayer of the motorway. He said this will amount to €727.4 million over the life of the toll contract with Eurolink, which ends in 2052.   However, NRA spokesman Seán O’Neill said Mr Salafia’s claims were a distortion of the facts. The road would cost about €720 million if Eurolink had not been involved and the cost was borne entirely by the State. “In fact only €250 million is being paid up front; the rest of the cost is being borne by the contractor . . . Distorting the figures doesn’t benefit the public, what benefits the public is the construction of a new, safe, value for money motorway.”

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Taxpayers face multi-billion euro motorway bill

Irish Independent – Saturday September 12 2009  – By Michael Brennan and Aine Kerr

TAXPAYERS are facing a multi-billion euro bill to fund the State’s new motorway network.  The Comptroller and Auditor General’s report showed that the tolled M3 Clonee to Kells motorway, which is due to open next year, will cost taxpayers €727.4m in total over the next 42 years.  The upgrade of the M50 ring road in Dublin from a two-lane to three-lane motorway by the ICON consortium will cost €1bn up to 2042.  But while the State is paying private contractors for building and maintaining the roads in annual instalments, drivers will also have to pay billions of euro in tolls to use the motorways.

The Comptroller’s report said these public private partnership (PPP) contracts were signed for periods ranging from 30 to 45 years. However, the National Roads Authority (NRA) will share in some of the toll revenue if traffic exceeds certain targets. It earned €500,000 in toll revenue from the Kilcock/Kinnegad section of the Dublin-Galway motorway last year. The Comptroller’s report said the NRA believed it would earn €1.7bn in tolls from the motorways built under PPP contracts. The NRA also estimates it will earn a further €1bn in tolls by 2020 from the West Link toll bridge on the M50.  But the report detailed the costs to the State of its buyout of the West Link toll bridge, which is now barrier free.

Responsibility

It now has to pay €50m per year to National Toll Roads (NTR) from August 2008 to March 2020 and assume responsibility for VAT of the order of €140m.  The overall cost will be €600m. NTR originally invested £6m in the West Link toll bridge in 1987 — about €14m in today’s money.  While there was provision for the reduction of tolls to zero in the agreements, subject to compensation of NTR for lost revenue, there was no provision for outright termination. “The absence of a termination clause hampered the State in its negotiations,” the report said.  Meanwhile, the Comptroller and Auditor General John Buckley also found that the State was unlikely to require any further carbon credits to meet its carbon emissions targets under the Kyoto Protocol by 2012.  The drop in the level of economic activity has led to a similar drop in carbon dioxide emissions.  Although the State is still contracted to buy 8.3 million Kyoto units, it will be able to carry forward any excess credits to the post-2012 period.