Bernard Allen
Question:51 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation the costs incurred to date by the State in the planning and preparation of Campus Ireland at Abbotstown, County Dublin. [2494/01]
Priority Questions. - Sports Campus Ireland Project.
To date, £2,878,151 has been expended through the Vote of the Department of the Taoiseach, including advances to Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Limited, in respect of the cost of the planning and preparation of the Sports Campus Ireland project. Responsibility for funding Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Limited transferred to my Department with effect from 1 January 2001. To date no moneys have been sought in respect of the project. Provision in my Department's Vote for expenditure on the project this year is £65.376 million.
When calculating the total cost of the project will the Minister be factoring in the £6.6 million already spent on facilities at Abbotstown, the £150 million it will cost to relocate the Veterinary Research Laboratory and the Marine Institute and the value of the land? Will he indicate if a valuation has been done at the land bank at Abbotstown and advise on the extent of the acreage involved?
Even at this stage, with £2.8 million already spent, will the Minister indicate if there is any sign of an anchor tenant for the stadium? He could not answer this question in the debate last night.
The question must be purely statistical.
Why is that?
The other matters can be dealt with on the Adjournment debate. The Deputy can only seek purely statistical information when the Minister will reply to the—
I put the questions last night but the Minister would not answer them.
He cannot deal with them now either. The questions must be purely statistical.
The questions I have asked are statistical except the last one.
As I said last night, the cost of building Campus and Stadium Ireland is estimated at £550 million. In case I may have at any stage inadvertently misled the House, as has recently been pointed out, I may have said the cost of the stadium would be £281 million. If I have inadvertently misled the House I wish to correct that. The cost of the stadium is £51 million less than that figure. It will be £230 million. If the donation of £50 million by a private sector person is taken in to consideration, the cost of the stadium to the Exchequer will be £180 million. Over the last number of weeks others have speculated that the estimated cost will be much higher than this. I have heard figures bandied about like confetti at a wedding to the effect that the cost will be anything from £400 million to £500 million, £600 million, £750 million and £800 million. The figure of £900 million has been skipped for some reason and, conveniently, the figure of £1 billion has been mentioned and this week it has increased to £1.2 billion. I expect next week the suggested estimate will be in excess of that figure. The esti mated cost to the Exchequer of the sports campus and stadium is £350 million.
The Minister has not answered one of the questions I put to him. I will repeat them in case he did not hear me, although I regret wasting my time having to do so. As in the debate last night, the Minister is full of wind and no substance. In arriving at an estimate of the cost is he factoring into the equation the £6.6 million spent on the development of the facilities at Abbotstown, the cost of relocating the facilities – will that be £150 million? – and the value of the land? Other developers must do this when developing a project. I ask the Minister to indicate the true cost of what is involved. Nobody is engaged in fabrication. The Minister is continuously misleading the House in the figures he is providing. He should now indicate the true figures.
Deputy Allen has little to do other than to elaborate on these types of questions. The State owns the 500 acres at Abbotstown. The Government is to proceed with its policy of decentralisation. There will be costs involved in this, no matter what aspects are considered. The Veterinary Research Laboratory is being transferred to County Kildare in conjunction with the required upgrading of its facilities, which are necessary in view of so much consumer concern over BSE, etc.
A Cheann Comhairle, I wish to put on the record that the Minister continues to refuse to answer the specific questions I put to him. He is being economic with his words.
A question please.
Does the Minister agree that the decentralisation programme has not yet been announced? The facilities at Abbotstown are being relocated purely for reasons of convenience to make way for the stadium. How can the Minister explain that this is part of the Government's decentralisation programme when it has been deferred until after the next election? For the third time will he answer the three specific statistical questions you, Sir, asked me to put?
It is correct for any Opposition to ask questions about the cost of various projects. I have indicated the estimated cost to the Exchequer of Campus and Stadium Ireland. The Deputy would be surprised at the number of consortia that have submitted applications to build the complex. The number is in double figures. A large percentage wish to build the entire complex while others wish to build certain sections.
The Deputy is correct in trying to ensure that costs are kept at a minimum. The Government will ensure that. Over the last decades different Governments have paid lip service to sport. The estimated cost of the complex currently stands at £350 million. If it was to cost £0.5 billion or £1 billion, the country needs such a sporting infrastructure. If £40 billion is to be spent on the national development plan then a cost of £0.5 billion will amount to 1.25% of the cost of the plan, which is a small percentage allocation to funding sport.