Archaeologist declines hearing invitation

A second of the State's foremost archaeology experts has declined an invitation to appear before the Oireachtas Committee into the controversial M3 motorway.

The Chief State Archaeologist, Mr Brian Duffy, has told the Oireachtas Environment Committee that he did not think it appropriate to address their hearings before the Minister, Mr Roche, had made his final decision on the routing of the motorway.

Mr Duffy is the second leading archaeology and heritage expert to turn down an invitation to appear before the committee.

The director of the National Museum, Dr Pat Wallace, told the committee he had been asked by senior officials in the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism not to attend.

In a letter to the committee chairman, Mr Seán Haughey, Dr Wallace said the secretary general of the Department, Mr Philip Furlong, had advised him that his position as a statutory officer under the National Monuments Act "might be compromised at the committee and my attendance would be inappropriate at this stage". Mr Duffy and Dr Wallace had been due to attend the hearings yesterday.

Speaking at yesterday's meeting, Labour TD Mr Eamon Gilmore said it was not acceptable that public servants were being "prevented" from coming to the committee. "It is manifestly clear from Dr Wallace's letter that he was told not to come here. Now we have been told that the chief state archaeologist was also told not to appear."

It was "absurd", he said, that the committee could not hear from public servants because they had a statutory role in the process.

"This is muzzling of public officials who might express a view that was not convenient or not in line with the way the project is being advanced."

Green Party TD Mr Ciarán Cuffe said it was "extraordinary" that such senior experts would be subject to a "gagging order".

"It is nothing more than political influence of the worst order that Dr Wallace was denied the opportunity to come in here today."

Mr Haughey said he would write to the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr O'Donoghue, and Mr Roche asking that they allow the experts to attend.

A spokeswoman for Mr O'Donoghue said there was no question of Dr Wallace being gagged, but she said, he had a statutory responsibility to advise the Minister on the archeological aspects of the project and it was preferable that he did not address the committee before that time.

Mr Roche did not tell Mr Duffy not to appear before the committee - "he did it off his own bat", a spokesman said.

Representatives of the Heritage Council and the State funded Discovery Programme yesterday told the committee they would not have chosen the proposed M3 route through the Tara Skryne valley.