A group of Irish sports organisations have officially come together to agitate for the originally proposed facilities to be maintained at Sports Campus Ireland at Abbotstown.

Anticipating a possible scaling down of the project, a number of national governing bodies met at the Sports Development Conference, which was held at Citywest last weekend, and agreed they would work together in trying to ensure the entire project remains intact.

The 31 sport confederation, claiming to represent two million participants, intend to submit their statement, and that of chairman of the Irish Sports Council Pat O'Neill, to all members of the Oireachtas.

The fear among what have been termed the "second line sports" is that the original idea of the Sports Campus Ireland will be stripped to the bone with the smaller federations losing out. Their fear is that because they do not have the financial or political muscle of the bigger sports, they will be overlooked as the political clamour intensifies.

The tennis proposals currently include the provision of 10 indoor courts and 20 outdoor courts with seating for up to 4,000 spectators provided on one of the outdoor arenas.

Furthermore, extensive sports science and medical facilities, which would benefit all sports, were part of the original on-site provisions while the proposed multi-purpose arena had planned to seat 15,000 people and could host major events.

A firm of consultants was called in during the summer to examine the development and a report has now been presented to the Government.

"This project must stand on its own merit and be free from political considerations. It is wrong to link short-term political interests to something that will prove invaluable to future generations of Irish sports people," said the federation statement.

"Basketball represents about 300,000," said Debbie Massey of the Irish Basketball Association. "We have estimated that between all of the federations there are over two million participants, which is a big representation. Hopefully the government will take a positive approach. We feel that the views outside the big three (GAA, soccer and rugby) could be represented more clearly. We are looking for a mechanism to put across the views of all of these bodies."

The IRFU are not on the current list of governing bodies but have expressed their support. IRFU chief executive Philip Browne spoke at the Sports Conference in Friday's session on the change from amateur to professional rugby but was not at the Saturday meeting of the federations.

"The IRFU have publicly stated that they are in favour of Campus Ireland as envisaged by Bertie Ahern," said an IRFU spokesman.

The federation statement said that the Government can no longer pay lip service to the project and must act now to make sure it goes ahead as originally envisaged.

"The future prospects for Irish Sports without the development of these facilities are very bleak. Our international success will depend on the resourcefulness of a few gifted wild geese athletes, condemned to a life abroad to chase a dream that we can make into reality with Sports Campus Ireland."

Cycling, which would hope to have a velodrome incorporated into the plans are also anxious about the contents of the consultants report, which may be brought to Cabinet within three weeks.

National Governing Bodies represented in statement: Irish Basketball Association, Tennis Ireland, Irish Cycling Federation, Olympic Council of Ireland, Irish Squash, Irish Canoe Union, Paralympics Council of Ireland, Irish Amateur Rowing Union, Irish Cricket Union, Pitch and Putt Union of Ireland, Baton Twirling Union of Ireland, Irish Gymnastics, Irish Waterpolo Association, Irish Taekwondo Union, Irish Orienteering Association, Irish Triathlon Association, Irish Wheelchair Association, Irish Underwater Council, Community Games, Badminton Union of Ireland, Irish Amateur Wrestling Association, National Target Shooting Association, Motor Cycle Union of Ireland, Athletics Association of Ireland, Irish Tug-O-War Association, Billiard and Snooker Association, Football Association of Ireland, Ladies Gaelic Football Association, Northern Ireland Sports Council, Irish Sailing Association, Special Olympics.