As the new Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Gormley took over the responsibility for the decision to allow the excavation of national monuments near the historical site of the Hill of Tara to facilitate the construction of the M3 motorway. On his final day in office, outgoing minister Dick Roche signed an order which allowed a newly discovered National Monument at Lismullin near Tara to be studied and then destroyed to make way for the building of the motorway. Gormley stated that he was unable for legal reasons to reverse this order. Green Party TD Ciarán Cuffe expressed his dissatisfaction with the former Minister Roche's decision and expressed his hope that Gormley could reverse it. Gormley appointed a long-standing critic of the M3 route, Dr. Conor Newman of NUIG, to oversee the archaeological work as part of a special committee on the Lismullen site.