{"id":412279,"date":"2025-09-10T04:55:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T04:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/412279\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T04:55:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T04:55:16","slug":"executive-discussions-around-casement-park-to-take-place-in-due-course-homepage-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/412279\/","title":{"rendered":"Executive discussions around Casement Park to take place \u2018in due course\u2019 &#8211; Homepage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">By Rebecca Black, PA<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Stormont Executive will have discussions around the building of Casement Park \u201cin due course\u201d, the Northern Ireland Assembly has heard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">NI Finance Minister John O\u2019Dowd was questioned on the long-awaited west Belfast GAA ground on Tuesday during questions for his department.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Opposition leader Matthew O\u2019Toole asked Mr O\u2019Dowd what specific actions he has taken since the announcement of \u00a350 million (\u20ac57.7 million) in Financial Transactions Capital (FTC) funding from the UK Government for the project earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2.80464423.jpg\" alt=\"Matthew O\u2019Toole comments\" data-title=\"Matthew O\u2019Toole comments\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Liam McBurney\" data-usage-terms=\"FILE PHOTO\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\"\/>Stormont Opposition leader Matthew O\u2019Toole (Liam McBurney\/PA)<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">He also asked Mr O\u2019Dowd when Casement Park will be built.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Mr O\u2019Dowd said he and his officials have engaged directly with the Northern Ireland Office and the Treasury around how the \u00a350 million will be delivered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI have asked for meetings with my Executive colleagues in regards to these matters as well, and those discussions will take place in due course,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI believe Casement Park will be built, and what it requires is commitment from the Executive and this Assembly to deliver on that, and many, many other areas of the Programme for Government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Mr O\u2019Toole pressed Mr O\u2019Dowd to answer when Casement Park will be built.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">He responded: \u201cI\u2019m the Minister for Finance. My responsibility is to engage with the Treasury in relation to the releasing of the \u00a350 million FTC funding. I have actively and productively followed that through.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThe timescales for the delivery of Casement are a matter for the GAA and for the DFC Minister (NI Communities Minister Gordon Lyons).<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIt will be built in the timescales that are required in the terms of the funding. The FTC funding is for four years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Casement Park was originally to be built alongside the redevelopment of Belfast rugby ground Ravenhill and football ground Windsor Park over a decade ago but was delayed by legal action brought by local residents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">More recently, plans for a \u00a3270 million (\u20ac311.6 million), 34,000-capacity stadium have been mired in uncertainty because of a major funding shortfall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The \u00a350 million provided by the Government has not bridged that gap, which remains at an estimated \u00a3100 million (\u20ac115.4 million) if the redevelopment was to proceed as currently envisaged by the GAA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Stormont ministers committed \u00a362.5 million (\u20ac72.1 millon) to Casement in 2011, while the Irish Government has offered roughly \u00a342 million (\u20ac48.4 million) and the GAA has pledged to contribute at least \u00a315 million (\u20ac17.3 million).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Rebecca Black, PA The Stormont Executive will have discussions around the building of Casement Park \u201cin due&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-412279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115178224276292784","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412279","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=412279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}