Vol. 555 No. 5
80 Ms Lynch asked the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the expressions of interest from the private sector to provide funding for the proposed national stadium following his Department's advertisements in the media recently; if it is proposed to proceed with the national stadium on this basis; if a venue has been selected for the stadium; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19136/02]
81 Mr. Deenihan asked the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the current Government proposals for the provision of a national outdoor stadium; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19323/02]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 80 and 81 together.
Private sector investors interested in putting forward proposals to develop a national stadium on the State-owned site at Abbotstown were invited to submit expressions of interest to my Department by noon on Friday, 18 October. The response was very encouraging and 23 separate submissions were received by the deadline. These proposals are currently being examined by my Department in consultation with other Departments and agencies including the Office of Public Works, the National Treasury Management Agency and the Attorney General's office, following which I will report to the Government on the outcome of the process. It is as yet too early to say what the outcome of this examination will be and I do not wish to speculate about it at this stage.
Is it not incumbent on the Department to advertise in the Official Journal of the European Communities and to state very clearly what the Government has in mind, what is on offer and what type of contract will be available? I am sure the Minister has read, as I have, media reports about what might be on offer to the private sector in order to make the deal a little sweeter. Will he make a statement on this? Is it the case that the Government intends to offer additional lands to whatever developer eventually wins this competition, perhaps for residential or commercial purposes, alongside the national stadium?
Is Abbotstown the only site on offer? Has the special group set up by the Department at the end of July produced a report and, if so, does it indicate that there should be other sites available for the stadium, perhaps within the city limits? My other question concerns the money that was on offer from J. P. McManus. If a private consortium eventually builds the stadium, will that money still be on offer? Will it be used for that purpose? Will it be a down-payment on the national stadium? I ask the Minister to clarify how much the project will cost; whether Abbotstown is the only site on offer; whether additional lands will be offered to whoever wins the competition and, if so, whether that will be discussed in advance; whether the offer of a donation from J. P. McManus is still available and whether there are other offers in the pipeline.
There is no question of State land being made available to any developer to enable him to make a large profit at the taxpayers' expense. That is not the object of the exercise. The object is to see whether there is sufficient interest in the private sector to enable the project to go ahead. There has been a considerable amount of interest. It must be remembered, however, that the advertisement sought expressions of interest and not tenders. It will be necessary, in the event of the projects going ahead, to advertise in the Official Journal of the European Communities. Deputy Lynch asked whether Abbotstown was the only site available. The working group set up in July investigated a number of alternative sites but for reasons of scale, cost and so on it favoured the Abbotstown site.
There have been no discussions with Mr. McManus about whether his offer will be available in the event of the projects proceeding through the private sector. It must be stressed, however, that Mr. McManus's offer, to the best of my knowledge, was made on the basis that the State would construct the stadium. It is clear now that the State will not do this because of budgetary constraints. I intend to have the expressions of interest examined by a panel to see how the project may be advanced. I propose to ensure that the Department of Finance, the National Treasury Management Agency, the office of the Attorney General, the Office of Public Works and my Department are represented. After the evaluation of the expressions of interest we will decide whether the stadium is to be constructed by the private sector.
Did any of the five final bidders for Campus Stadium Ireland also express an interest in this project? Has the Minister considered the possibility of providing funding to the IRFU and the FAI to build their own stadium? I am sure the Minister agrees that what we need is a stadium for rugby and soccer and not one for hurling and Gaelic football because we have a super-stadium for those two sports. Could the Minister give us an idea of the time it will take for him to make up his mind? The IRFU and the FAI are in a vacuum and I hope we are not now entering into a charade like the one that was kept up for three or four years over the "Bertie Bowl".
There was no charade, but I will not go into that with Deputy Deenihan. I have had discussions with the IRFU and the FAI and they are very anxious that a stadium be provided. Twenty-three national and international companies and consortiums have expressed an interest in proceeding with this project and we must assess and evaluate all those expressions.
Does that include the five that expressed an interest in the "Bertie Bowl"?
I have indicated before that it is my intention to be up front about whether we will be in a position to provide two stadiums for the European Championships in 2008. We know the decision in this regard will be taken in Switzerland around 12 or 13 December, by which time we must be able to inform UEFA whether we can or cannot provide the stadiums. It would be best if there could be a definite decision in regard to the stadium before that date in order that we can give an indication of our position one way or the other.
The building of a stadium by the private sector is not predicated on our getting the European Championships in 2008, actually it is the opposite. I would like to have the position evaluated and assessed by the end of November in order to have a clear idea of where we are going. We could then see whether it will be possible to tell UEFA that we can provide the necessary facilities for the European Championships in 2008. If we can do this, I will be pleased to do so. If we cannot and it still appears possible that the stadium can be provided, we will indicate to UEFA that it would not be certain that the stadia will be ready on time for the 2008 European Championships.
Will the Minister agree that on the basis that more people watched the World Cup than voted in the last general election sport is vitally important to the people and that there will be huge disappointment if we do not host Euro 2008? Have there been any discussions with GAA officials in regard to Croke Park and the 2008 European Championships on the basis of the amount of money given to the GAA, rightly so because it is a fine stadium? Were there conditions attached to the granting of the money in regard to our bid for the 2008 European Championships?
I would like if the Minister could answer my question. Do the 23 consortia which expressed an interest include the five final bidders for the "Bertie Bowl"?
Will the Deputy name the five?
Dublin International Arena; the Australian consortium, Prospero; US event management company, SFX; the German Walter Group and Multiplex, developer of Stadium Australia in Sydney.
I will clarify the position in that regard later because some of the applicants may or may not involve some of the companies named by the Deputy. In some cases there is a consortium involved.
Surely if they do not bid, it is not an expression of confidence in what the Minister is trying to do. Will he give some indication of what incentive the Government will provide for the private operator to build a stadium? Surely there must be some tax incentives. The Minister has ruled out free land, but there must be some incentives. Surely it would be better to give the money directly to the FAI and the IRFU and tell them build a stadium.
Some or all of the companies to which the Deputy referred may or may not be involved in some of the consortia which have made an application. Since I would not have the names of the companies if included in the name of a consortium, it would not be possible to give the Deputy the kind of details he is seeking as to whether companies were or were not interested. That is the reason I would prefer to deal with the question later. It relates to the minutiae of the situation. Suffice it to say that there have been 23 expressions of interest. I never said there would be no question of the Government not giving some incentive. What I said was that we were not in the business of enabling any private investor to make a killing at the taxpayer's expense. I will ensure that will not happen.
Question No. 82 answered with Question No. 78.
