{"id":19620,"date":"2025-04-14T16:19:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T16:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/19620\/"},"modified":"2025-04-14T16:19:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T16:19:12","slug":"casement-park-funding-decision-due-in-june-as-ni-secretary-issues-warning-over-figure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/19620\/","title":{"rendered":"Casement Park funding decision \u2018due in June\u2019 as NI Secretary issues warning over figure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sinn F\u00e9in leader Mary Lou McDonald, deputy leader Michelle O\u2019Neill MLA, and MP John Finucane met today in Belfast with Secretary of State, Hilary Benn MP.<\/p>\n

Following the meeting, Ms McDonald said redevelopment of the west Belfast GAA stadium had been on the agenda.<\/p>\n

It comes after thousands of gaelic games players and supporters marched to the derelict Casement Park stadium<\/a> on Saturday to demand its redevelopment.<\/p>\n

Following the noisy parade through west Belfast, a rally held adjacent to the crumbling ruins of the GAA ground heard calls for the Stormont Executive and Government to end the lengthy delays in rebuilding the sporting venue.<\/p>\n

Plans for a 34,000-capacity venue remain in limbo due to a major funding gap of around \u00a3150m.<\/p>\n

\"Casement<\/p>\n

Casement Park currently lies derelict (David Young\/PA).<\/p>\n

A fly-through of the proposed Casement Park redevelopment for the 2028 Euros<\/p>\n

Stormont ministers committed \u00a362.5m to Casement in 2011, but redevelopment has been delayed for several years because of legal challenges by local residents.<\/p>\n

With planning approval finally granted four years ago, the \u00a3270m project has since been held up over a dispute over funding.<\/p>\n

In September, the UK Government ended hopes that the west Belfast venue would host Euro 2028 soccer games when it said it would not bridge the funding gap to deliver the reconstruction in time.<\/p>\n

In addition to the \u00a362.5m committed by Stormont, the Irish Government has offered roughly \u00a342m.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The rally was held adjacent to the crumbling ruins of Casement Park (David Young\/PA)<\/p>\n

The GAA has pledged to contribute at least \u00a315m \u2014 the same figure offered by the sporting body over a decade ago, despite soaring costs and inflation.<\/p>\n

Ms McDonald said: \u201cAt the weekend, gaels took to the streets of Belfast, demonstrating strong support for the new GAA stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are doing all we can to get construction underway, but clarity is needed on the British government\u2019s financial contribution \u2014 beyond that of the Executive and the GAA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Secretary of State informed us that a bid has been made to London and a decision is expected in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cSinn F\u00e9in is fully committed to delivering Casement Park in the Executive. It is a necessary project, long overdue, and enjoys widespread public support across Ulster and the entire island. What we need now is swift, decisive action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is Rory McIlroy\u2019s Masters immortality the greatest night in NI sporting history? <\/p>\n

\"Listen <\/a> \"Listen <\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s understood the Government will make its announcement following this summer\u2019s UK-wide Spending Review, which is expected on June 11.<\/p>\n

However, Mr Benn has made clear that even if the Government does divert money to the project, the sum will not alone bridge the current funding gap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sinn F\u00e9in leader Mary Lou McDonald, deputy leader Michelle O\u2019Neill MLA, and MP John Finucane met today in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[6412,1144,16,15,6110,12845],"class_list":{"0":"post-19620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-casement-park","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-west-belfast-news","13":"tag-west-belfast-sport"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114337229323305935","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}