State look to IRFU and FAI to come up with plan to fill in for Bertie Bowl
Abbotstown is now unlikely to house a stadium as the Government looks to the IRFU and FAI to come up with a plan to build a 65,000 seat facility more likely to be located at a redeveloped Lansdowne Road, the Irish Glass and Bottle Plant in Ringsend or IRFU lands at Newlands Cross.
The Government would then provide public funding to a joint IRFU-FAI stadium proposal.
But the Government have ruled out the 23 expressions of interest in building the Bertie Bowl from private consortia.
Sport Minister John O'Donoghue said private developers expressing an interest in building the stadium at Abbotstown had too many strings attached.
He said he had never been in favour of allowing a private developer to make a killing on public lands.
As the FAI and the IRFU are both cash-strapped, Mr O'Donoghue said their contributions towards the cost of a stadium would be based on advance ticket sales.
The positions of the FAI and IRFU were untenable in terms of hosting international matches from 2004 onwards at the existing Lansdowne Road.
Later this year, the international football governing authority FIFA will enforce a rule stating that games will have to be played in all-seater stadia with no temporary seating allowed.
The rule means that the capacity of Lansdowne Road for football internationals will be reduced to just 24,000, thus making the ground highly uneconomic.
Following almost three years of political rows over the stadium, the Taoiseach finally accepted last year the economic climate meant that the Bertie Bowl would have to be scaled back and would not get public funding.
The decision to weigh in with the sporting bodies in developing a stadium was welcomed by opposition parties.
Fine Gael sports spokesperson Jimmy Deenihan said it was now decision time on the national stadium and the minister had finally come around to his party's policy.
"The minister gave no clear indication as to when the final decision will be taken. The IRFU, the FAI and the sports fraternity around the country cannot wait another three years for a decision. The matter needs to be sorted out immediately," he said.
Labour sports spokesman Jack Wall also backed the proposal, stating that his party always supported the idea of a scaled back version of the original national stadium. "I do see the need for it. I think what we have got to do now is to move forward with this proposal and put it to bed once and for all," he said.
