Ahern hoping investors will rescue Stadium Ireland

The Taoiseach has said he hopes the business community will invest in his Stadium Ireland project after the Government refused to allow taxpayers money to be used in the scheme. At a cabinet meeting yesterday, ministers ruled out the possibility of Exchequer funding for the stadium because of the economic slowdown.

However, Bertie Ahern said he hopes the project can still go ahead. "Whether there’ll be expressions of interest or not, we’ll just have to wait and see," he said.

"Naturally I hope there will and naturally I hope that we’ll be perhaps able to move the project certainly quicker than we could do waiting for Exchequer funds to improve."

Despite Mr Ahern’s confidence, many observers remain sceptical about the prospect of private sector investment in Stadium Ireland.

The Labour Party’s Pat Rabbitte said the Government will have a difficult time trying to convince businessmen to invest in a scheme that is unlikely to make a profit. "If anybody thinks that the private sector is going to put money into a loss-making project, they’ve got another thought coming," he said.

"[The stadium] was never viable and, in a climate where health workers are being made redundant and services are being cut, the notion that this folly involving hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money would go ahead was nonsense."