Garth Brooks’ grip on Ireland’s disposable income led the FAI to abandon plans for a second home summer friendly.

Regarding the Cyprus levy proposals, I believe the Irish Government welcomed the proposed deal with the Troika until the Cypriots took to the streets.

Olympic Council of Ireland President Pat Hickey has defended the policy of government ministers attending the Olympics.

The cavalier attitude of government departments and highly paid advisers towards public projects that involve the money of beleaguered taxpayers is mind boggling.

The Minister for Sport and Tourism has insisted that the development of a new national sports campus does not amount to the return of the "Bertie Bowl".

Ardagh Glass is poised to float on the New York Stock Exchange and, if the move goes to plan, it will transform its main shareholder, Paul Coulson, from one of Ireland’s richest men into the realms of mega wealthy, writes Kyran Fitzgerald

Hanging over the whole sorry debate about the new children’s hospital is the dark cloud of political fixing, central to governance in this country, writes Michael Clifford

ONE of the more strident sayings in our period of construction mania between 2004 and 2007 was “build it and they will come”.

FORMER taoiseach Bertie Ahern insisted he had never taken bribes as his role in plans for a national stadium came under the spotlight of the Mahon inquiry.

FORMER taoiseach Albert Reynolds will not be questioned by the Mahon tribunal as doctors say he is unfit to attend.

OUTGOING Fianna Fáil TD Jim Glennon plans to launch a sports consultancy firm which will lobby for Government funds.

Taxpayers are being hit twice by the Government’s wanton waste, the Labour Party said today as it stepped up the pressure over expensive public projects which have failed to deliver services.

Tony Leen, Sports Editor

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern again expressed his disappointment over the so-called Bertie Bowl yesterday, telling the Dáil that it may now be 30 years before Ireland sees a national stadium built.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern denied in the Dáil tonight that he was pessimistic over the €290m redevelopment of Lansdowne Road.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern yesterday confirmed that the so-called Bertie Bowl national stadium at Abbotstown will never be brought back onto the Government’s agenda.

Ireland will not build a third national stadium alongside Croke Park and the redeveloped Lansdowne Road, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said today.

IN August 2004, the Irish Penal Reform Trust characterised Justice Minister Michael McDowell’s plans to build new super-prisons in Dublin and Cork as the minister’s own personal Bertie Bowl.

BERTIE AHERN and Fianna Fáil were last night forced to defend the Bertie Bowl debacle after the Progressive Democrats blew the final whistle on the Taoiseach’s pet project.

BERTIE AHERN will attempt to gloss over the embarrassing scrapping of his pet project stadium as the Cabinet back the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road.

MINISTER for Sport and Tourism John O’Donoghue admitted yesterday that it was time for the Government to ‘make its mind up’ on the proposed national stadium.

AS taxpayers will soon learn to their cost, national football stadiums can be notoriously expensive.

THE Government will decide to build a new 50,000-seater stadium at Lansdowne Road before the end of the month and finally abandon plans to create the “Bertie Bowl” at Abbotstown.

AS the Government inches towards a crucial decision on the location of a much scaled-down national >stadium, all the signs are that Abbotstown is the front-runner over revamped IRFU rugby grounds at Lansdowne Road.

ABBOTSTOWN is emerging as the strongest location for the national stadium — a little over a year after the Government was forced to drop the controversial E1 billion ‘Bertie Bowl’ planned for the location.

IT was the summer of 1994 and the Irish Universities were touring South Africa, one of the first parties to do so after Nelson Mandela was elected president.

IRFU bosses yesterday unveiled a 250m plan to demolish Lansdowne Road and rebuild it as a national stadium to accommodating rugby and soccer.

THE Bertie Bowl appears to be completely scrapped as the Government has ruled out private sector involvement in the National Stadium project.

The Government has published this year's Finance Bill to legislate for changes announced in last December's Budget.

THE GOVERNMENT is considering funding a new national stadium at Lansdowne Road which would cost taxpayers millions of euro.

Hundreds of farmers drove their tractors through Dublin today at the end of a week-long protest.

Ireland will remain a third-world sporting country unless it builds a new top-class sports stadium, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern today said.

PLANS by the FAI and IRFU to build a 60,000-seat sports stadium will not go ahead without State funding, sources for the sporting organisations have conceded.

The failure of the joint Irish-Scottish bid to stage the 2008 European soccer championships today looked set to prompt political recriminations on both sides of the Irish Sea.

Ireland and Scotland go head-to-head with other European nations in the race for Euro 2008 today.

THE views expressed by Cormac MacConnell (Irish Examiner, Oct 26) highlight the anti-sporting and sectarian attitudes that are alive and well in the GAA.

BETTING tycoon JP McManus's decision to withdraw his €63 million gift towards the cost of a national stadium will not affect the likelihood of an arena being built.

THE Taoiseach last night told GAA president Seán McCague to reapply for the €40 million grant he had promised to the organisation and that he wanted Croke Park opened up for soccer.

THE FAI has welcomed a commitment by the Government that a final decision on the construction of a national sports stadium will be made by the end of next month.

THE Celtic Tiger is not dead and gone it is merely limping. But to deliver on public pay hikes promised under benchmarking would make it extinct.

THE Taoiseach’s battered hopes for a National Stadium were boosted last night when one of the country’s leading property investors expressed interest in taking on the project.

SPORTS chiefs insisted last night the Government would still have to pay them €120 million worth of grants despite the climbdown on the National Stadium.