A public meeting presenting and debating the Alternative Plan which allows for immediate completion of the M50 Motorway and preservation of Carrickmines Castle will be held in the Social Hall at Liberty Hall on Thursday, the 26th June, 2003 at 6.00 PM. Admission is free.

The Alternative Plan, developed by Carrickmines Castle Preservation Group (CCPG) is currently being considered by Minister for the Environment, Local Government and Heritage, Mr Martin Cullen, and Minister for Transport, Mr Seamus Brennan.

Representatives of Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council, Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Chamber of Commerce, The National Roads Authority, The Department of the Environment, The Department of Transport, IBEC, Transport Umbrella Group as well as over 200 members of the Oireachtas have been invited to participate. In addition, political parties such as the Green Party and Sinn Féin are expected to express support for the Plan.

Mr. Leo Enright will chair the meeting. A question and answer session will follow each of the following four brief presentations:

Dr. Seán Duffy, Professor of Medieval History, Trinity College Dublin and Chairman of Friends of Medieval Dublin will present the historical evidence, showing the existence and significance of the Carrickmines Castle site. He will also discuss the Complaint he has filed with the European Commission.

Mr. Damien Shiels, Site Supervisor and Historical Researcher on the first dig at the Carrrickmines Castle site (under Site Director, Dr. Mark Clinton), will present the archaeological significance of the site, and an account of the excavations and will discuss images of important finds.

Mr. Proinsias de Rossa, Member of the European Parliament and former President of the Labour Party will give an account of the nature, current status and possible consequences of his and other Complaints that have been made to the European Union regarding Carrickmines Castle.

Mr. Vincent Salafia, Juris Doctor, Director of the Brehon Law Project and Legal Secretary for Carrickminders will give an update on the case of "The Attorney General at the Relation of Gordon Lucas and Dominic Dunne -v- Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council" and present the CCPG Alternative Plan.

Cllr. Victor Boyhan, Progressive Democrat and Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Councillor, will discuss his reasons for supporting the Alternative Plan, and his experiences as a councillor during the entire controversy leading up to the recent re-negotiation of the motorway contract with Ascon.

According to Mr Vincent Salafia, Spokesperson for CCPG:

"The new motorway construction contract, announced last week, which allows for work to continue on either side of the Castle site leaves a window of opportunity to redesign the road and make this a win-win situation.

"The Alternative Plan allows for immediate completion of the M50 Motorway and preservation of Carrickmines Castle by simply bending the motorway and reducing the size of the interchange at Carrickmines. Not only that, but it will preserve the environmental integrity of the Carrrickmines Valley, save money by reducing the size of the unnecessarily large interchange currently planned and allow for a LUAS bridge at Carrickmines and by ending all current litigation and delays.

"This debate will also serve as the first round of discussion of the Critical Infrastructure Bill, which is to shorten the planning process and will affect laws governing environmental protection and heritage preservation.

"Minister Cullen is faced with three choices: consent to the destruction of Carrickmines Castle, resulting in huge delays, costing millions; allow current litigation to advance, resulting in huge delays, costing millions; or adopt an alternative. We hope we can work with him to find a positive way out of the current stand-off.

"Motorway and castle. Why not?"



ENDS

Contact:

Vincent Salafia, Spokesperson
Carrickmines Castle Preservation Group
(01) 283-2880  ccpginfo@yahoo.com

Technical Questions: Steve
(01) 280-4357