THE PROSPECTS of a 35,000-seat stadium being constructed on the site of the Maze Prison look increasingly uncertain amid DUP divisions over the project and warnings that its cost could spiral into several hundred millions pounds.
First Minister Peter Robinson and other senior DUP politicians are viewed as growing hostile to the development, while in the House of Commons yesterday Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward expressed his annoyance at the lack of movement on the site.
Mr Woodward said: “If the national stadium project were to be lost from the Maze, it would almost certainly mean that Northern Ireland would lose its opportunity to be one of those centres which will be focused in the Olympics in 2012.”
Former DUP sports minister Edwin Poots had lobbied strongly for the stadium at the Maze, which is in his Lagan Valley constituency close to Lisburn. But when he was dropped from the Executive by Mr Robinson earlier this month, the tide appeared to turn in favour of the DUP politicians who oppose the development.
One of the reasons for the antagonism is that on the 360-acre site a conflict transformation centre is also proposed, which some unionists view as a shrine to the republican hunger strikers.
Senior DUP figures such as Mr Robinson and new Finance Minister Nigel Dodds are understood to be citing the cost factor in their antipathy to the stadium, which the GAA, Irish Football Association and Irish Rugby Football Union have pledged to use.
The Maze is one of a number of issues that the DUP is blocking, Sinn Féin is complaining. Another issue is the devolution of policing and justice.
In a briefing with journalists, Mr Robinson indicated that the dissolution of the IRA army council would be one of the matters that must be resolved before such devolution could happen.
