Republican News · Thursday 12 September 2002

National Stadium fiasco

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Sport, Martin Ferris TD, has described as a fiasco the government's handling of the National Stadium issue. In a humiliating reversal for Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, it was announced after a Cabinet meeting on Monday that no further public money would be spent on the stadium project and that private funds would be sought instead.

"The Taoiseach went into the General Election promising the public that the National Stadium project would go ahead," said Ferris. "Now we are told that no Exchequer funding will be forthcoming and the project will rely solely on private sector funding - if any takers can be found.

"This is a fiasco. Are we now to have a situation where the site at Abbotstown, on which massive amounts of State money has already been spent, will be handed over to private developers to construct a stadium which will be run on a purely profit basis?

"This debacle clearly demonstrates the total lack of real long-term planning and effective decision-making by this incompetent government."