Ahern denies pessimism over Lansdowne Road

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

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte accused Mr Ahern of being negative about the 50,000 stadium and claimed he was still obsessed with the ’Bertie Bowl’ proposal in Abbotstown which he dubbed his “vanity project” and a “mirage“.

Mr Rabbitte asked: “Why are you sending out signals of a lack of confidence that the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road will ever take place?”

Mr Ahern appeared to voice concerns on Sunday that the Dublin 4 project would face major planning objections because of its location in the congested Ballsbridge area.

He said: “I’ll have my doubts until the day it opens because I just think it’s in a very built up area and I think it would have been better to go to an open space, but I couldn’t win enough support for that.”

Mr Ahern’s remarks came as the GAA annual congress took the historic decision to amend Rule 42 to make Ireland’s only world-class stadium available to soccer and rugby during the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road.

The Taoiseach told the Dáil today that he had spent 13 years working on planning issues in relation to Croke Park and that he understood the concerns of residents and local action groups on such projects.

“I wish Lansdowne Road every success in getting it through, but it’s not easy,” he said.

Mr Ahern also predicted that Ireland would not now have a national stadium on the scale of the ’Bertie Bowl’ for up to 30 years.

He explained: “We do not have, and are not going to have for 30 years - certainly a generation – a national stadium with proper facilities. We’re not going to have that. It is regrettable as far as I’m concerned.”

“I would have liked to build a proper national stadium with proper facilities that many other countries have.

“At least we will very quickly end up with two good stadiums.”