The Sports Campus Ireland project for Abbotstown has become a meaty bone of contention between the main political parties, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor
The Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell, didn't pull any punches this week when he characterised the Taoiseach's planned Campus of Sporting Excellence at Abbotstown in Co Dublin as a "Ceausescu-era Olympic project".
The Progressive Democrats, who reluctantly went along with the national stadium element of the project just two months ago, had already come out strongly against it in their election manifesto, saying that its price-tag of almost €1 billion was "too costly".
Under pressure on RTÉ's Questions and Answers programme on Monday night, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, insisted that it would cost "nothing like" €1 billion. That figure, he said, was for the entire campus; the stadium would cost €444 million only.
This is the euro equivalent of the £350 million projected cost Mr Paddy Teahon staked his reputation on delivering "the project" at. But what Mr Teahon had in mind was some or all of a wide range of sporting facilities, not just the stadium.
Mr McCreevy appeared to be rowing back from Fianna Fáil's manifesto commitment to "start work on the construction at Abbotstown of a world-class national stadium" while remaining "committed to the development of a range of other top-class facilities".
The Minister has got his figures wrong. According to the independent High Point Rendel report, commissioned last year by the Government at the insistence of the PDs, the proposed 80,000-seat stadium at Abbotstown would cost £320 million (€406 million).
And although Fianna Fáil sources have indicated that it could be scaled down to, say, 65,000 seats, there would not be much change left from Mr Teahon's ballpark figure of £350 million to fund a 15,000-seat indoor arena, velodrome, golf academy, tennis centre and other facilities.
Significantly, the party does not explicitly mention "sports campus" in its manifesto. And, given the downward turn in Exchequer resources, the likelihood is that the facilities originally envisaged would also be scaled down if it was returned to power.
It is important to remember that the justification for choosing Abbotstown for the sports campus was that its 500-acre site, in State ownership, would be large enough to accommodate not just a national stadium and aquatic centre, but all the other facilities, too.
There is an emerging consensus among the other political parties that Abbotstown is the wrong place for the stadium. Its remoteness from the city-centre raises serious transport issues, notably the threat of traffic chaos on the M50 before and after matches.
Although Fine Gael's manifesto does not specifically mention Sports Campus Ireland, the party has previously called for the project to be abandoned in favour of opening up Croke Park, upgrading Lansdowne Road and dispersing investment in sport throughout the State.
Labour also favours a "scaled-down stadium with state-of-the-art facilities" but without specifying its location. However, it wants to see Lansdowne Road "retained as a sporting venue" and also favours "the development of sports facilities throughout the country".
The PDs are more explicit about redeveloping Lansdowne Road and opening up Croke Park to other codes, arguing that Dublin's relatively small scale can only support one 80,000-seat stadium (Croke Park) and a smaller stadium seating 40,000-50,000 on the Lansdowne Road site.
The Green Party would "scrap the national stadium" in favour of a "40,000-50,000 all-seater stadium with an anchor tenant or tenants", such as the FAI, IRFU or GAA.
But what about the 15,000-seat indoor arena, the golf academy, velodrome, tennis centre etc? It seems unlikely that any of these will be built during the lifetime of the next government - although Docklands could certainly do with an arena.
Depending on the election outcome, it should still be possible for Fianna Fáil to reach agreement with Labour, the PDs and/or the Green Party on a scaled-down stadium, built at an affordable price. The issue to be resolved will be "location, location, location".