Burns warns 'time is money' over Casement Park project
GAA president Jarlath Burns has welcomed the British Government's pledge to provide £50m towards the redevelopment of Casement Park but warned that more may be needed to finally see ground broken on the project.
The stadium, the home of Antrim GAA, has been derelict for over a decade and, with the current likely final cost currently sitting around £270m and rising, Burns has challenged the Stormont Executive to bump up their 2010 promise of £62.5m in line with "inflationary uplift".
"On behalf of the GAA we welcome this decision. We welcome the funding that has been given by the British government. We welcome funding from wherever it comes from. We worked very hard along with Ulster GAA and the executive to receive that funding," Burns told RTÉ Sport.
"We still don't have enough for Casement Park, and we're now really just waiting to see what the [Stormont] Executive does in terms of its inflationary uplift to the £62m that was promised in 2010," he added.
"We don't want to get into specific figures as to what inflationary uplift looks like now," Burns cautioned. "We're now back into the position of spectator because the British government have said what they're giving. The Irish government have said what they're giving.
"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."
Burns was coy on whether any of the GAA's own coffers could help further bolster the Casement Park fund, pointing to projects elsewhere in the country as evidence of the association's pressing financial commitments.
"It is not for me as an ordinary member of the GAA – even though I'm president – to make a comment on that at the moment. We have to see exactly how close we get to the figure that we need," Burns explained.
"We have a lot of other infrastructure priorities. We're building a stadium from scratch in Louth. We have to spend almost 10 million on Thurles at Semple Stadium and all around the country.
"So we have to be very strategic in how we invest our money, but certainly we will be very interested to see what the executive does and how close that gets us to the figure we need."
As to the final figure needed to build the new jewel in the Ulster GAA crown, in a time of spiralling costs, that seems to be a moveable feast.
"You are really well over £270m at this stage, bearing in mind that 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. Time literally is money here," Burns pointed out.
"It is so difficult to put a cost on that stadium because it rises every month and if you're going to be needing upwards of £270m at this stage to build a stadium where we can comfortably house 32 or 33,000 people who want to attend Ulster finals.
"Every penny that we get puts us a little bit closer, but every month that goes by pushes it a little further away. We owe it to Ulster GAA, we owe to Antrim GAA – who have been so patient for all of these years without a ground of their own – to get this stadium built as quickly as possible."
Michael Geoghegan, President of Ulster GAA added: "With this announcement there is now growing momentum and belief that Antrim's home and Ulster's provincial stadium is a step closer.
"We look forward to the project getting started and hosting some of the largest, most exciting and significant games on the island of Ireland while also significantly adding to economic recovery and regeneration in Belfast and beyond."
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