Taxpayers need value for money

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

Yet, with the Government poised to build a new stadium either at Lansdowne Road or Abbotstown, foreign examples show it can be done without breaking the bank.

Take Portugal, for instance, a football-mad nation currently building seven new facilities and renovating two more in preparation for Euro 2004. The total bill is expected to come to around €800 million.