The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) is to make a further submission to the Government about the provision of a national stadium, the Minister for Sport has told the Dáil.
Mr John O'Donoghue said that formal proposals for a stadium could not be brought to Government until he had all the necessary information. He expected to have the final submission from the IRFU by the end of this month.
He will then begin a formal process of consulting Cabinet colleagues on his proposals for "dealing with the acknowledged need of both the FAI and the IRFU for modern stadium accommodation".
He was unaware of "any report which comes down definitively in favour of Lansdowne Road" as the best site for the proposed stadium, rejecting Fine Gael's claim that the report, conducted by Arup, favoured Lansdowne Road.
He also insisted there was no conflict of interest in using the same consultants as were involved in the Abbotstown project to evaluate the Arup report.
He rejected Fine Gael criticism about the lengthy delay in making a decision on the provision of a stadium. The party's spokesman, Mr Jimmy Deenihan, said it was almost four years since the Government had proposed a new 80,000-seat stadium, and it was "now decision time".
In October, the Minister told the Dáil he would soon be bringing a memorandum to Government, seeking a decision and Mr Deenihan asked Mr O'Donoghue to "define what 'soon' means".
Mr O'Donoghue insisted, however, that there was "little point" in bringing a memorandum to Government until he had all the required information. He pointed out that, at a recent meeting, the IRFU said it needed to make a further submission.
"I am disposed towards listening to what the IRFU and any other sporting organisation has to say," he said.
He insisted that he would bring a memorandum to Government "at the earliest opportunity".
He said there was an "urgent imperative that suitable, safe and secure accommodation is provided" for Ireland's qualifying matches in 2004 for the next soccer World Cup.
But Mr Deenihan said that - in the absence of a decision on the stadium - the IRFU and the FAI (soccer's governing body) "are losing considerable sums of money". The Minister agreed that the two bodies "are at a substantial revenue loss", but he hoped that situation could be rectified.
