A UNESCO fact-finding mission will arrive in Ireland next week to examine the impact of a planned municipal waste incinerator near Drogheda on the Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site.
The investigation team, which will include representatives of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), was requested by UNESCO's World Heritage Committee at its 27th session in December.
A spokeswoman for Paris-based UNESCO said the main purpose of the mission was to review the planned waste incinerator and particularly its impact on "the value and the integrity of the World Heritage property".
She said members of the mission wanted to meet non-governmental organisations concerned with the state of conservation of Brú na Bóinne, "in order to understand the situation from different points of view".
Local campaigners and the cross-border Battle for the Boyne group have made representations to UNESCO that the incinerator planned by Indaver Ireland at Carranstown would have a detrimental impact on the Boyne Valley. An attempt is now being made by the Save Tara/Skryne Valley group - which is campaigning against the M3 motorway - to extend the scope of the UNESCO investigation to include the Hill of Tara, although it lies outside the World Heritage Site.
Mr Vincent Salafia, spokesman for the group, said he had made contact with both UNESCO and ICOMOS and was hoping to meet members of the fact-finding mission while they are here, between February 18th and 21st.
The group is opposing the route of the M3 motorway, as approved by An Bord Pleanála, because it would "slice the Tara/Skryne Valley and interfere with the archaeological complex that forms the national monument of the Hill of Tara".
Mr Salafia, who has also been involved in the campaign to save Carrickmines Castle, said Tara should also be recognised as a World Heritage Site and the route changed. He said the National Road Authority's allocation of €20 million of the €680 million estimate for the M3 to cover archaeological excavations was "outrageous" because it was one of the richest valleys in the world and "should not be dug in the first place".
But the main focus of the mission will be on Brú na Bóinne, where the neolithic passage tombs of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth are located. It is one of only three World Heritage Sites in Ireland, the others being Skellig Michael and the Giant's Causeway.
Meath County Council's decision to approve Indaver's proposed incinerator was upheld by An Bord Pleanála last March, against the recommendation of the planning inspector who dealt with the case, and in the face of widespread public opposition.
The No Incinerator Alliance, which led the campaign, said it was the most controversial proposals ever processed in the north-east, generating 4,500 individual objections - including one by Mr John Bruton TD - and a petition of 26,000 signatures.
