Current plans for the building of a National Stadium will be abandoned if Fine Gael are returned to government between now and next summer. If possible, the party will try to withdraw from existing construction contracts and instead concentrate on funding a number of sports related projects around the country.
Bernard Allen, the Fine Gael spokesman on sport, said yesterday that his party is opposed to spending what they claim may amount to £1 billion on a single project. He also expressed concern that the current Government may attempt to rush through contracts in advance of the next election.
"If a decision has to be made in spending this amount of money, then there are other priorities," said Allen. "We would have a look at the contractual arrangements which are in place and if we had the flexibility with those contracts, we would prefer to nurture grassroots sport. It is now the party line that we seriously question the spending of £1 billion on what we believe could become a white elephant.
"But I have a great fear that the Government will rush so hard into this that it (the contractual commitment to build) might be irreversible. Building a stadium for such a cost simply doesn't stand up. It doesn't make sense. I think there is another agenda. I think it could be handed over for professional European football. If that is the case let Bertie Ahern say so and let's debate it in the Dail."
Conflicting figures have been put forward for the overall cost of the proposed 80,000-seat venue at Abbotstown, Dublin. With the 500 acre site already in State ownership, the projected cost was originally put at £300 million with a completion date in 2005. Both the Labour Party and Fine Gael now put the cost at £1 billion or more.
Allen also claimed that lower estimates of how much the stadium would cost do not include a number of aspects of the project including the relocation of laboratories on the site, road and rail development and inflation in the building industry, currently running at between five and six per cent.
He also questioned who would use the stadium given that the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) are well advanced in their re-building of Croke Park and the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) continue to hold out hope of constructing their own soccer venue at Eircom Park in Saggart.
"Croke Park is going ahead, so will Eircom Park and the IRFU are sitting watching what's going to happen. We will examine the contracts and put the needs of sport in Ireland ahead of one building which will be used about six times a year and become a monument to ego."
The Taoiseach told the Dail on Tuesday he was confident that the main sporting organisations would use the stadium in years to come.
"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 said.
Apart from an all-seater stadium, which could be used for Gaelic games, rugby and soccer, the proposed facility would include an aquatic and leisure centre which would be available for the Special Olympics in 2003. The aquatic centre would incorporate a 50-metre pool.
The Government has established a development company, Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Ltd (CSID), under the chairmanship of the former secretary of the Department of the Taoiseach, Paddy Teehan, to oversee the project, which will be developed as a public-private partnership.
