[Article] €200m archaeological bill for taxpayers

andyhunt

Road works dig up extra €200m archaeological bill for taxpayers

TAXPAYERS will pick up a €200m bill for archaeological digs on the national roads programme, official figures reveal.Over 1,000 people are employed on archaeological activities in advance of road building on behalf of the National Roads Authority. Figures obtained by the Irish Independent yesterday showed as much as €150m will be spent on archaeological digs associated with road schemes in the next five years, on top of almost €50m already spent. Nine schemes alone have already notched up €13m in heritage digs. In addition, the cost of the South Eastern bypass of Dublin - the final section of the M50 - has soared to €12.6m, with almost €10m of this going on Carrickmines, up from €6m in just one year. More than 200 people have been involved in archaeological works along the route of the South Eastern motorway. A total of €30m is being spent this year on archaeology and this is to be maintained over the next five years, the duration of the main national roads programme. This means the final bill to taxpayers is likely to be as high as €200m. It also clearly shows archaeology is now a major growth industry because of roads due under the Government's National Development Plan. Huge amounts of cash are expected to be spent on excavating the Viking settlement discovered during preliminary work on the Waterford bypass. Millions will also be spent on carrying out excavations along the 60km route of the Clonee-Kells M3, where controversy rages over the number of archaeological sites in the vicinity of the Hill of Tara. Michael Egan, NRA corporate affairs manager, said yesterday they expected to be spending as much as €30m a year in the next four or five years to deal with archaeology on major new schemes. "Out of a sense of responsibility for the past we are sending in archaeologists first, ahead of the bulldozers," said Mr Egan. "We are adding substantially to knowledge about our past, how people lived, worked and how they were buried." Mr Egan argued it was ironic that the more the NRA did out of respect for archaeology, the greater the criticism of its efforts.
"The authority will stay the course and is in for the long haul in dealing with archaeology, in line with best practices," he said.


Has the archaeology issue been blown out of all proportion? Aren't there far better ways of spending E200m?

sliabh

andyhunt wrote:

Has the archaeology issue been blown out of all proportion? Aren't there far better ways of spending E200m?

I think it's a fair investment. A little high maybe but we can certainly afford it. It's a shame that other areas of the arts are not getting a proportionate amount of spending though.

Victor

andyhunt wrote:

Has the archaeology issue been blown out of all proportion? Aren't there far better ways of spending E200m?

This is out of a guaranteed budget of €10,500m.