Minister: it’s crunch time for stadium

MINISTER for Sport and Tourism John O’Donoghue admitted yesterday that it was time for the Government to ‘make its mind up’ on the proposed national stadium.

However, he would not disclose whether he would be advising his cabinet colleagues to favour Lansdowne Road or Abbotstown as the site for the proposed project.

Reports late last month suggested that the new stadium proposed by the IRFU for Lansdowne Road would encounter difficulties with planning permission due to its increased size and capacity. That led to speculation that Mr O’Donoghue would not be in a position to submit his memorandum on the stadium to the Cabinet before the end of January as expected.

However, Mr O’Donoghue cast aside those suggestions in Dublin yesterday, raising hopes that once his report considered, a quick decision may be forthcoming. That is certain to be welcome news to the FAI who will meet with their 2006 World Cup counterparts early next month to thrash out their qualifying schedule.

At present, Lansdowne Road’s terracing does not meet the international standards set by FIFA to host competitive senior internationals, making the FAI’s need for a definitive decision all the more acute.

Both organisations generate around two-thirds of their annual incomes from home matches and the Ballsbridge stadium’s current unacceptable state has raised the possibility that Brian Kerr’s side may have to play some of their ‘home’ games in Britain.

The news of a forthcoming decision by the Government will also be welcomed by Croke Park. The GAA were thrown into the middle of the national stadium debateand this news effectively means any external pressure on them to alter Rule 42 at April’s annual congress will now be considerably lessened.

“I have stated all along that I would bring the proposals before the Government during the month of January. I am on course to do that,” Mr O’Donoghue said. “The memorandum is now completed and the options are ready to go before the Government.

“I think that we have invested an awful lot of time and energy on this issue over the last 18 months and the time for commissions and reports and sub-committees and so on is now over. We have enough information. It’s make-your-mind-up time.”

Mr O’Donoghue was naturally unwilling to disclose prior to meeting with his Government partners whether he will be recommending Lansdowne Road or the Abbotstown site in west Dublin, originally earmarked for the ‘Bertie Bowl’.

However, Mr Ahern’s assertion earlier in the month that he was not ‘hung up’ on Abbotstown is one of several reasons why the inner-city venue has most people’s vote at present.

“I have said all along on this that I would be extremely careful to keep my Government colleagues informed first,” Mr O’Donoghue said. “There is little point in me engaging in megaphone diplomacy on an issue that is as fundamentally important to the sporting community of this country.

“There are some options that I will be telling the Government are not really on at this point and I will also be telling them what my view is on the option or options that are on. In the end, it’s the collective decision of the Government and I am just one member of the Government.

“I have stated on numerous occasions that I am of the very strong belief that we definitely require a second stadium, that it is imperative that rugby and soccer find a home, that Lansdowne Road is in its present state no longer a viable option.”

Mr O’Donoghue was speaking on a visit to the soon to be opened Finglas Sports Centre, a state-of-the-art community facility in north Dublin comprising a 25m pool, leisure facilities and all-weather floodlit pitches. The project benefited from €8.2m in Government support.

Other significant projects to have received Government funding last year included Limerick’s Gaelic Grounds (€1.5m) and the National Rowing Centre in Iniscarra, Co Cork (€934,000).