Ireland's first 50-metre swimming pool, much discussed and oft postponed, will be the first facility built on the new National Stadium campus at Abbotstown. Although the stadium project is not due for completion until 2005, the swimming pool is scheduled to be open some two years earlier.

As the Special Olympics will be staged in Dublin in 2003, the Government sees it as an ideal opportunity to launch the complex as the new focal point of Irish sport.

For much of the last 20 years the provision of a 50-metre pool has been the subject of agitated debate. Now, barring the unexpected, the indications are that the long wait will soon be over.

While swimming prepares to share in the collective benefits of the campus, athletics officials insist that they have no real complaint with the decision not to install a running track as part of the stadium.

Instead, they are campaigning for additional State funding to upgrade Morton Stadium in Santry, with the emphasis on improving facilities for athletes and spectators alike.

They contend that this represents better value for money than a facility at Abbotstown, which would be used infrequently and which, under the contingency plan envisaged by the architects, would result in the capacity of the stadium being significantly reduced to accommodate a rollup track.

At this point, the FAI want no truck at all with the Abbotstown planners, lest it be interpreted as a diminution of their commitment to the building of their own Eircom Park stadium, which is due to be completed by 2002.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has made it clear that the National Stadium will go ahead with or without the FAI's involvement, but at a meeting with some of the association's officers on Monday morning he again made it clear that he sees football as the flagship sport in the stadium.

Only in the event of planning permission for Eircom Park being refused do the football authorities see that as a credible proposition and delegates at tomorrow's meeting of the FAI Council will be told that, in spite of some ominous portents, Merrion Square remains confident that permission will be forthcoming.

It is worth recording, however, that in replying to a question in the Dail on Tuesday, Minister for Defence Michael Smith stressed that his department is one of the objectors on the basis that floodlights at the stadium could dazzle pilots in their approach to the nearby Baldonnel military airport.

That, and the minister's recent statement that the possibility of the airport being expanded for civilian use is being examined, is likely to focus added interest on the planning process.

The Taoiseach is also thought to have emphasised the importance of partnership in the context of future funding for the association during Monday's talks, but there was little evidence of a climbdown in subsequent statements by FAI officials.

There are those who believe that if the FAI's figures on Eircom Park stack up there is no reason why the two stadiums should not be built, but clearly pragmatism demands that all avenues of co-operation should first be fully explored.

In the meantime, the costings of the two projects continues to be a source of controversy with opponents of Eircom Park arguing that the real cost is likely to be in the region of £100 million rather than the £65 million originally mentioned. It has also been said that by the time the requisite infrastructure for the National Stadium is put in place, the cost will be substantially more than the £280 million quoted.

A date for the start of work on the National Stadium project would provide reassuring evidence that the ambitious concept, first outlined by Ahern two months ago, is indeed destined to change the landscape of sport in this country.

To this point, the only activity on the site has been the preliminary work involved in relocating agricultural laboratories already based there, but the expectation is that the earthmovers will be operational by the start of next year.

Pending the publication of the Book of Estimates, there is no budget currently available for the work, but in the preliminary stage of the project this is not an issue.

Significantly, the £50 million private donation by the entrepreneur JP McManus has already been deposited in a Swiss bank and may be drawn down in tandem with Government spending.