The opposition parties last night expressed their doubts about the viability of the Government's planned £230 million national stadium for Abbotstown in West Dublin.
Fine Gael last night demanded time in the Dail for a debate on the project while the Labour Party signalled it would be tabling questions to the Minister for Tourism and Sport challenging him to prove the stadium will not be "an expensive white elephant".
The Fine Gael spokesman on sport, Bernard Allen, said he was concerned at the Government proposal given that the GAA is redeveloping Croke Park while the FAI is developing the Eircom Arena in West Dublin.
The Cork deputy called for a guarantee that funding for the 2,000 sporting projects planned throughout the country, costing in excess of £700 million, would not be put at risk by the investment. He said the funding for the stadium must not come from budgets that should be available for national and regional sporting organisations, as well as for the thousands of clubs operating under difficult conditions.
"The balance between the development of national facilities and those at local level, as set out in the National Plan for Sport published in February 1997, must be maintained," Allen said.
Meanwhile the Labour Party spokesman on sport, Brian O'Shea, said there was a real danger of unnecessary duplication. "The question that must be asked is, bearing in mind that the requirements of soccer and Gaelic games will be met by their own stadiums, what sporting events will be left to attract attendances of 80,000," he said.
