GAA should 'change' Casement plans, says DUP minister

The minister in charge of sport in Northern Ireland has said plans for a new Casement Park stadium in west Belfast may have to be scaled back due to the funding shortfall.

Communities Minister Gordon Lyons said the £50m offered on Wednesday by the UK government still left a "significant gap".

In a statement to BBC News NI, he put the onus on the GAA to find more money or "change their plans to fit the funding".

The price-tag for the planned 34,500-capacity stadium is about £100m more than is currently available.

The GAA president, Jarlath Burns, has welcomed the £50m offered by the government but revealed the cost of rebuilding the derelict stadium is now "well over £270m".

Mr Burns told Irish state broadcaster RTÉ on Wednesday: "The cost goes up by about £140,000 every month if we don't do anything because of the rising cost of infrastructure and building.

• Casement Park: All you need to know about the stadium soap opera

"Time literally is money here."

The GAA president is looking to the Stormont executive to help plug the funding gap.

He said: "The executive now have to meet, and it's between really the two government parties to decide how they are going to make up the deficit that still exists between Casement Park not being built - and Casement Park being built."

The statement from Lyons put the focus on the GAA itself.

He said: "Additional money coming to Northern Ireland for sport must be allocated on a fair and equitable basis, a principle first agreed as part of the 2011 executive agreement and one I remain firmly committed to in the interests of fairness to all.

"It will be up to the GAA to consider what additional contribution they are prepared to make or how they will change their plans to fit the funding that is available.

"I look forward to engaging with the representatives of the GAA, football and rugby."

Casement Park is expected to be among the topics discussed when ministers from the UK government sit down with their counterparts from the Stormont Executive in Belfast later.

Although the stadium is not officially on the agenda of the East-West Council, it is sure to be discussed.

This is only the second meeting of the council, a body set up last year to improve links between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK after lobbying from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) ahead of the restoration of devolution.

The funding currently available for the Casement Park redevelopment includes £15m from the GAA, about £43m from the Irish government and £62.5m from Stormont.

Given that the Stormont funding pledge is more than a decade old, there have been calls for inflation to be taken into which would take the total close to £100m.

Mr Burns has asked Stormont to consider an "inflationary uplift".

The football authorities in Northern Ireland will be watching closely what happens next.

The Irish Football Association has called for at least £50m to be given to the sport in line with the extra UK money pledged for the Casement Park redevelopment.

Chief executive Patrick Nelson said that "parity" between major sports is required.

The GAA want a modern Casement Park stadium capable of hosting Ulster finals, as well as being the home for Antrim county.