The Taoiseach rejected Opposition criticism of the proposed national stadium at Abbotstown, Co Dublin.

Mr Ahern expressed confidence that the major sporting organisations would use the stadium. "If we are ever, in sport, to bring ourselves into the real world, at both local and national level, this country requires state-of-the-art facilities, and this is an attempt to do it."

He added that the need for the stadium had been identified in the mid-1980s. It would represent good value for the small proportion of capital expenditure required, and "the only pity is that it was not done years ago".

Mr Ahern said many of the people opposing the project had done nothing for sport in the State when they had an opportunity. "What successive governments spent on sport in this country was a crying disgrace." He had set up a department dealing with sport, and, this year, there was hardly a ground, or place of accommodation, in any constituency, that was not receiving substantial capital funds for sport.

The Fine Gael spokesman on sport, Mr Bernard Allen, said the project would cost almost £1 billion, adding that the State "could be going down the road to a repeat of the millennium dome". The only difference would be that the national stadium would be "a permanent millstone" around the neck of the taxpayer and the sporting bodies.

"Has it crossed the Taoiseach's mind at all, notwithstanding the capital investment in this, there will be a huge revenue charge on the exchequer on an annual basis?

Mr Pat Rabbitte (Labour, Dublin South West) said the Taoiseach should consider if he was losing a grip on reality. When £50 million had been offered towards the project by a donor, the cost of the project was about £100 million. The estimate was now £550 million, and there were a great many items not included in that figure.

"This may have been a brave project when it was envisaged. But now that it is going to cost about £800 million, is it not time to look at the run-down swimming pools, the towns with no swimming pools, the young boys' football clubs, with no place to change, around this city and country, the athletic clubs that are under-provided for, the completely derelict infrastructure in every town and village in the country?"

Mr Rabbitte warned that if "the folly" went ahead, it would absorb all the resources which would otherwise be available to build up the sports' infrastructure in the State. The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, said that if the money to be provided for the stadium was allocated to members of the House, it would allow for £5.42 million to be spent in each constituency. He wondered how the Taoiseach expected the GAA to abandon Croke Park for a major event, given the expenditure on its recent refurbishment. Likewise, how would the FAI abandon its park and pay substantial fees for a stadium owned by somebody else?

Mr Ahern said matters evolved. Given the way sport was moving, there would be a different situation in the years ahead. "A stadium can only be a national stadium, if the main sporting bodies use it. And they will."