Foras Teamhrach (the Tara Foundation, founded 2004) is an association of family members, most of whom have an academic background.

We highlight issues of heritage and resources, pointing out that the Irish constitution gives them protection and is thus under attack.

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The M3: Why the Public will never stop Paying

"I don't know who was there five thousand years ago, and I'm sure they were very significant people, but somewhere along the way you have to come to an end of a process." Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern speaking about the proposed M3 Motorway project in 2005. [1]

The M3 is a four lane motorway, 60 km in length, between Co. Meath and Co. Cavan. The motorway passes 1.2 kilometers from the Hill of Tara at its closest point. It covers 700 hectares of land including 50 km of side roads, 35 over-bridges, 22 underpasses, 3 river crossings and 2 railway bridges. The Blundelstown interchange alone covers 52 acres; Blundelstown is located just 1000 meters from the Hill of Tara. The EU contributed for 2.9 million to the planning and design phase from 2000-2003. The contract was awarded to Ferrovial Agroman S.A. Corp and SIAC contractors (Eurolink M3) under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract. When the M3 contract was signed, Ferrovial, the consortiums senior partner, was 31.3 billion in debt. The contract was awarded by the NRA (National Roads Authority), the state agency responsible for the national roads network, in March 2007.

Under PFIs, private corporations are contracted to construct and manage infrastructure projects. These contracts typically extend over 30 years, though the contract for the construction and toll operation of the M3 will run for 42 years. Under the PPP arrangement between the NRA and Ferrovial, the contractor is paid in annual installments for the maintenance and operation of the M3.

The average overrun in road construction cost worldwide is 20%. In Ireland it is 86%. Consultants who examined the NRAs accounts found that cost overruns were attributable in whole or in part to design changes which the NRA had failed to prevent from happening (RTE, Prime Time Investigates: The Money Pit, 2005). 90% of the initial costs of road programmes overseen by the NRA were underestimated,

according to Professor Bent Flyvbjerg of Aalborg University. Flyvbjerg said that this was attributable to a practice of strategic misrepresentation.

Although bad weather or specific ground conditions can add as much as 40% to the costs of a road project, the NRA did not include these costs in their initial estimates. The Comptroller and Auditor General has described this underestimation in road prices as systematic, indicating that is was a deliberate policy rather than the result of incompetence. The NRA has claimed that these cost overruns no longer take place, but this change can be attributed simply to increases in funding allocations to motorway projects. NRA cost overruns as of 2004 amounted to 10 billion. [2] One estimate put their debt as of 2008 at 16 billion. [3] [4]

The PFI project structure was adopted in part as a result of lobbying by the construction industry; it has also been alleged that the motorways themselves were chosen as the principal focus of the roads programme because they facilitated tolling, and not on the basis of actual transport requirements. (The Money Pit). Lands along the M3 route are owned by politically-connected property developers, as with the section of M50 built over the site of Carrickmines Castle [5] [6] [7]

The M3 will cost taxpayers an estimated 727.4m over the next 42 years. (Comptroller and Auditor General Annual Report Accounts of the Public Services 2008, 26). A "minimum traffic level" clause for the M3 was included in the contract for the M3, meaning that taxpayers will have to compensate Eurolink if traffic flows fail to meet an agreed minimum target. But the National Roads Authority (NRA) has not revealed what this target is. This would be of concern to taxpayers, given that users of the M3 will be tolled twice, which will certainly lead to continued use of the (free) N3.

Under the Transport 21 plan announced by the Irish Government in 2005, the Dublin-Navan line was to be rebuilt in two phases as a branch of the Western Commuter line. The second phase, with a planned completion by 2015, would have seen the line extended from the Pace/M3 Interchange to Navan itself, with further stations at Dunshaughlin, Kilmessan and two in Navan itself. Three new railway stations at Hansfield, Dunboyne and Pace have already been built, the latter including a major park and ride interchange next to the M3 motorway. However, there seems to have been no funding allocation for this second phase in the Government's revised capital spending programme for 2010-2015, which instead prioritises projects such as the Metro North, the Dart interconnector and the Grangegorman redevelopment. [8], [9], [10]. The failure to fund the second phase of the Navan Railway line seems to be an effective cancellation of the project. The

Government have provided a rail connection to the M3 motorway, but there will not now be a direct rail connection to Navan itself for years to come.

References

[1] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/celtic-tiger-threatensmystical-tara-where-kings-were-once-crowned-483628.html [2] http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2004/0716/1089856816191.html [3] http://www.tarawatch.org/?p=766 [4] http://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.net/paperstoday/index.php?do=paperst oday&action=view&id=12560 [5] http://www.tarawatch.org/?p=64 [6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrickmines_Castle [7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mahon_Tribunal [8] http://www.transport21.ie/Projects/Heavy_Rail/Navan_Rail_Line.html [9] http://www.irishrail.ie/projects/dunboyne_commuter_rail.asp [10] http://www.tribune.ie/article/2010/aug/01/slow-train-coming

Foras Teamhrach, 2010