Stormont’s leaders appear at odds over the scale of the funding gap currently preventing the redevelopment of the Casement Park stadium.
Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said the shortfall between the money already secured and the cost of realising the GAA’s ambitions for a revamped venue was “well in excess of £100 million”.
However, speaking alongside her DUP counterpart at an Executive press conference in Belfast, Sinn Fein First Minister Michelle O’Neill said she did not recognise £100 million as being the size of the gap.
Ms O’Neill also told reporters that Communities Minister Gordon Lyons is due to meet the Casement Park programme board on Friday to discuss the ongoing impasse.
Plans for a 34,000-capacity stadium have been mired in uncertainty because of the major funding shortfall.
In the summer the UK Government allocated £50 million to support the redevelopment of the currently derelict west Belfast venue.
While that added to around £120 million that has been pledged by the Stormont Executive, Irish government and GAA, it was not enough to bridge the gap to cover the cost of the rebuild.
Stormont ministers committed £62.5 million to Casement in 2011, as part of a strategy to revamp it along with football’s Windsor Park and the rugby ground at Ravenhill.
While the two other Belfast-based projects went ahead, the redevelopment of Casement was delayed for several years because of planning-based legal challenges by local residents.
The estimated build cost spiralled in the interim. While planning permission has since been secured, the money committed to the rebuild is not currently enough to deliver it.
As well as the Stormont contribution of £62.5 million and the UK government’s £50 million, the Irish government has offered around £42 million and the GAA has pledged to contribute at least £15 million.
Ms O’Neill and Ms Little-Pengelly were asked about a project that has been prioritised as an Executive “flagship” as they announced the decision to back Northern Ireland as a UK host venue for the football 2035 Women’s World Cup.
If Belfast is selected as a host city, then Windsor Park would require investment for an upgrade.
The deputy First Minister said the type of stadium the GAA envisaged for Casement was a significant factor in the size of the funding gap.
“Look, let’s be very clear, Casement was agreed as part of a three-stranded stadia approach,” she said.
“It didn’t happen for a range of reasons. That was not because of political disagreement.
“It didn’t happen because there was a significant challenge locally in terms of the planning issues. There were different discussions that were happening at a local level.
“That commitment from the Executive remained from that time, of that amount of money, which I think was just over £60 million – that remains on the table.
“But over that period of time, the cost of Casement went up significantly to the point of literally hundreds of millions of pounds of additional money being required. That money is not there for that, and that’s the reality, and that was the challenge that everybody faced.
“And while there’s been a cocktail of funding, there is still a very significant shortfall of well in excess of £100 million.
“Again, that was down not to any political disagreement or any political party holding that back. It was because of a range of local disputes, particularly in relation to planning, which has caused that delay and then also the ambition of the GAA to the type of stadium that they want, which has increased the costs very dramatically.”
Ms O’Neill made clear that a new Casement Park “will be built”.
“I think that this is a very doable project,” she said.
Asked if the Executive was prepared to provide an added £100 million to see the rebuild delivered, she replied: “These are discussions that are ongoing in terms of (that). I don’t actually recognise the figure even as the gap being £100 million. So I think that’s the conversation that we’re actively engaged in.
“But, look, nobody loses from investing in sport. Nobody loses. Everybody wins when we invest in sports.
“So I am determined to work with Executive colleagues to make sure that we get all of these projects over the line, and I think that that’s well within our grasp to be able to do.”
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