Velodrome plans get Government approval

Cycling Ireland received a massive boost over the weekend as the Government has given a green light for plans for the country’s first indoor velodrome to go out to tender.

A feasibility report was compiled by Cycling Ireland and the National Sports Campus Development Authority (NSCDA) in Abbotstown, where the proposed velodrome will be built, and the latter body were sufficiently enthused by the findings to present them to Sport Minister Leo Varadkar, who approved the project over the weekend.

It now means plans can commence to design the 250m velodrome, which Badminton Ireland will also use as a base for training and competition.

Badminton Ireland hope to have up to 16 courts in the centre, which will be surrounded by the banked track.

“It’s very positive, it’s a green light to prepare the plans, but it’s not fully capital secured,” Cycling Ireland chief executive Geoff Liffey told the Irish Examiner.

“We put together a feasibility report before Christmas for the campus authority in a joint project with Badminton Ireland and they (campus authorities) had to review the feasibility and make sure they were happy with it and it stacked up,” explained Liffey.

“It’s massive, massive news. There’s an investment of time and money on behalf of the Government and the various authorities to review the feasibility report and they wouldn’t do that unless they were committed to the project. So it’s very positive, we’ll have to wait until the end of the year until the next budgets are announced to see what funding we’ll get, but it’s a signal of intent that the Government want a velodrome on the campus. They’re prepared to spend some money to bring it forward, so now, it’s about preparing the plans, putting a full design team in place and hopefully by the end of the year, the project will be fully specced out,” he added.