BREAKING: Cost of redeveloping Kildare's St Conleth's Park GAA grounds skyrockets by €4 million

The mural painted on the gable end of a house outside the gates of St Conleth’s Park in Newbridge still welcomes visitors to the grounds in June

placeholder image — The mural painted on the gable end of a house outside the gates of St Conleth’s Park in Newbridge still welcomes visitors to the grounds in June

Building costs inflation blamed

The estimated cost of redeveloping Kildare's St Conleth's Park GAA grounds in Newbridge has increased by close to €4 million, a source close to the project has confirmed to the Leinster Leader/KildareNow.

The inflated cost of building materials is to blame for the bump in the overall projected cost of the project, which is likely to increase by between 30% and 40%.

A Kildare County Board meeting last October heard that, at that point, the original €10.5 million cost of the project had grown to €11.6 million. At that stage, a second quarter 2022 start date for the redevelopment had been envisaged as the earliest possible - but no ground has yet been broken in Newbridge.

St Conleth's Park, Newbridge

Government funding of €4.85 million has been secured for the project, with the rest of the cost to be met by Kildare GAA's own fundraising and borrowing, plus grants from Croke Park.

However, it is understood that, due to the current rise in building costs, Croke Park is set to review all development projects.

St Conleth's Park was the subject of Kildare's famous stand-off with headquarters in 2018, when the Lilywhites refused to cede home ground advantage in Round 3 of the Qualifiers and agree to move their clash with Mayo to Croke Park - resulting in a galvanised side scoring a famous two-point victory over the visitors.