The IRFU is unlikely to embrace the proposed £250 million bond issue to the four Home Unions against future revenue from television, sponsorship and marketing deals quite as enthusiastically as the English (RFU), Scottish (SRU) and Welsh (WRU) rugby unions.

The IRFU, through good husbandry of finances, are in rude health with net assets of £28,410,915 at the end of the last fiscal year. This is in marked contrast to the other unions whose respective stadia developments have left them with serious and spiralling debts.

The bonds issue is the brainchild of Dr Tony O'Reilly, former international and chairman of Independent News and Media, and will be facilitated by Warburg Dillon Read, one of the world's leading investment banks. The latter has been charged to investigate the possible "securitisation" of the unions' revenues.

The bank believes £250 million is a conservative estimate of the capital that can be raised: that figure could rise as high as £400 million.

The IRFU have reacted positively, if cautiously to the proposals aware that the proposed cash injection could alleviate the biggest bugbear that they face, the development of a national stadium or the re-development of Lansdowne Road.

The union has been slow to address the problem of the ageing Lansdowne Road structure. Several studies have been commissioned, and US companies which specialise in stadia construction have been brought over to evaluate the possibility of reconstructing Lansdowne Road.

The union has procrastinated in the hope that, firstly, the Sonas venture in the Phoenix Park would produce a beneficial outcome, and then to await the published deliberations of the Government's feasibility study into the Docklands and Santry sites.

That report was due out last August, but the FAI's decision to build Eircom Park, despite an £11 million inducement from Minister of Sport Jim McDaid to the National League clubs not to support the venture, may scupper both the Government and the IRFU's hopes.

In mitigation, the union have watched both the RFU and the SRU land themselves with financial millstones in the shape of Twickenham and Murrayfield respectively - it will be interesting to note whether the new Millennium Stadium in Cardiff will prove equally draining on the WRU's resources. The problem is not building the structure, but of filling it more than twice a year, or in the case of Twickenham five or six times.

Nevertheless a stadium must be constructed, be it at the IRFU's green field sit at Clondalkin, or redeveloping Lansdowne Road. In present climes the current costing would work out at roughly £2,000 per seat: so a 60,000-seat stadium would carry a £120 million price tag.

The union's share of a bonds issue would allow them greater financial muscle and one would assume expedite the stadium development. The clubs of Ireland, essentially the shareholders of the IRFU, will lobby for financial aid to counter the spiralling costs of the professional era.

The union already bankroll the clubs through grants and direct cash payments based on certain criteria. They must also meet the wage bill for the national squad and coaching staff: last season that amounted to £6 million.

The IRFU have been prudent enough to ensure a sensible structure whereby players are contracted to the union, a situation which would inspire envy across the Irish Sea. The English union once more face a pitched battle with the clubs, or more accurately with their owners.

Tom Walkinshaw and his ilk are trying to commandeer the club game in England through a British league, involving English, Scottish and Welsh clubs. The inducement is an £85 million windfall to be divided among the clubs. The protagonists vie for control of player contacts.

The RFU announced at the weekend a blueprint for the future of club rugby in England. Former international Rob Andrew was charged with producing the formula and he opted for 12 franchises throughout the country, allocated on a regional basis. The proposal would appear to dovetail perfectly with the securitisation scheme.

It would allow the RFU to be master of their destiny with the power to own and control their property. The franchises outlined in Andrew's proposals would be owned jointly by the RFU and the franchise. This would allow clubs and the union to work together unencumbered by debt at both professional and amateur level.

It is likely to receive the support of the players if only because Walkinshaw's plans do not address several issues: where the money for the enterprise comes from, where and to whom will the money go and who will own and control the league, the players?

The bonds issue will give all the Home Unions the opportunity to enjoy something approximating financial security, a state of affairs - the IRFU aside - unknown since the advent of professionalism. The securitisation appears to be a gilt-edged opportunity for the unions to master the destiny of union football.