Casement Park rebuild not being held back because of me – communities minister

A DUP minister has said the redevelopment of Casement Park is because of a funding gap and not because he is at the helm of the department.

Communities minister Gordon Lyons said there were delays with the rebuild of the west Belfast GAA stadium long before he came into office.

The East Antrim MLA said that he and Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn were due to discuss funding issues next week.

“I want to explore the options. I want to see what the Government is thinking in terms of extra investment for Northern Ireland in terms of sport. I want to make sure that is done on an equitable basis,” Mr Lyons told the PA news agency.

Mr Lyons and Mr Benn are both in Washington DC as part of a series of events for St Patrick’s Day.

Speaking to the PA news agency, Mr Benn said it was “very important” that work starts on Casement Park before planning permission runs out next summer, but refused to say whether the UK Government would make a contribution.

Asked about concerns that the DUP are running down the clock, he said it “would make no sense at all” to allow planning permission to lapse.

Mr Benn said he spoke to Mr Lyons about it on Wednesday and a follow-up meeting would take place next week.

The Northern Ireland Secretary said: “Here we are 14 years on, and no progress has been made, and that is principally because of the planning difficulties and the objections of the local residents.

“Planning permission has been given, but that runs out next summer, and therefore it’s very important that work of some sort, from my point of view, starts before next summer.”

He added: “I want Casement Park to be built. I can’t say at the moment whether the UK Government will make a contribution, we have the spending review in play at the moment.

“But regardless of that, any contribution from the UK, there would still be a gap, and therefore all of the parties who want to see Casement Park completed are going to have to look at the nature of the project, its scale, reflecting on the changed circumstances, and also trying to see whether other sources of funding can be identified to get it built.”

The Stormont Executive committed to redevelop Casement Park in 2011, as part of a strategy to revamp football’s Windsor Park and the rugby ground at Ravenhill.

While the two other Belfast-based projects went ahead, the redevelopment of Casement was delayed because of legal challenges by local residents.

In September, the UK Government ended hopes that the west Belfast venue would host Euro 2028 games when it said it would not bridge a funding gap to deliver the redevelopment in time.

It said the risk to the public purse of missing the tournament deadline was too high and expressed concerns about how the cost of the project had potentially risen to more than £400 million.

Mr Lyons said: “Casement is not being held back because of my presence in this office.

“The reason why Casement has not progressed is because what is on the table now in terms of the plans and the money that we have on the table don’t match up.

“That’s not a gap that I can fill. I don’t have the resources within my department to do that.

“I will always do what I have pledged to do, which is release the money that has been already committed, but what we have right now doesn’t match.

“There is a gap, and that gap needs to be narrowed, either by reducing the size of any potential ceiling or increasing contributions from other stakeholders, or both.”

He added: “I think it’s very easy to blame a unionist, very easy to blame a DUP minister, but let’s just look at the facts.

“We have had 14 years of issues in regards to the redevelopment of Casement Park, that was long before I came into office.

“Those were issues in regards to the planning process, judicial reviews, safety certificates, and the controversy around that.

“And as well as that, you had companies going into administration and previous secretaries of state making commitments that they weren’t able to keep.”

He added: “If you want to look and see, is there a sport that has been held back because of politics over the last 14 years, yes there is, and that sport is football.”

He questioned why progress was not made on the Northern Ireland Football Fund while Sinn Fein was at the department.

“It was being held back because Casement wasn’t able to move forward for other reasons. So I’m progressing what I can with what I have, but I recognise the constraints that there are on budgets.”