Mr Shapps, please don’t be John Gormley, Irish Minister for the Environment who presided over the building of the M3 at Tara and refused to prevent the destruction of the newly discovered National Monument at Lismullin. He made an amazing false claim that “development and conservation can go hand in hand”. No Grant, they can’t. At Tara and Stonehenge, destruction is forever.

Listen instead to Tommy O’Hanlon from Co Kerry:

“TARA, here I am. I have come all the way from Kerry to be with you before the vultures, with bulldozers and JCBs, open your lower belly. They are impatient to inflict the wounds. You are abandoned, forsaken and rejected. All the powers that be have walked out on you. We pay them to protect you but they betrayed us. We trusted them too much.

The day Environment Minister Dick Roche sanctioned the motorway (that could be you, Grant!), I was watching the evening news in a pub. One man said, when he saw Mr Roche on TV, “Isn’t he a pity? I wouldn’t ask him to mind my chickens, and Bertie Ahern (that could be Boris, Grant) put him in charge of our heritage and environment. He has no bottle, afraid of the hawks.” Poor Mr Roche. Maybe he has no power. An Bord Pleanála, which is not comprised of elected representatives, makes all the big decisions. Or does it? Who has real power today?

Tara, what else can your support groups and friends do now? Are all avenues closed? Has your hour come? Will we call the lone piper to play a dirge?”

Did they say it would be like keyhole surgery Grant, with little damage to buried archaeology?  Or did they show you this picture of Tara? If I were you I’d make another excuse and postpone your decision again, until such time as the UK’s financial plight becomes so obvious you can cite that as a reason to cancel the scheme altogether, thus avoiding the real reason, that it’s dreadful and should never have been contemplated – or supported – in the first place!