Northern Ireland’s Communities Minister Gordon Lyons has described plans to reduce the capacity of the redeveloped Casement Park as ‘logical’.

The new capacity is expected to be much smaller than the 34,500 that was originally planned as the GAA looks to scale-back on the long-awaited project. The UK Government has pledged €58 million to the redevelopment, the Irish Government just under €50 million and the GAA around €17.5 million.

Lyons told BBC’s Good Morning Ulster Programme: "I said it for two years, I said if we want to build it to that scale, the GAA would need to be prepared to provide additional funding and they repeatedly said they were not in a position to do so.

"The Executive is not awash with money, the GAA were not prepared to contribute any more, so the logical conclusion to all of this is that there needs to be a smaller stadium.

"That is the position I’ve advocated for the last two years, and I’ve been lambasted for it, but now it seems that others are moving on to that position.”

The DUP minister added: "So would we always like bigger and better things? Of course we would, but let’s deal with the reality that we find ourselves in."

Tweet

Most Read Stories