Risk of not meeting Casement deadline for Euros ‘was just too high’

The risk of missing the Euros deadline for the transformation of Casement Park was “just too high”, the Northern Ireland Secretary has said.

Hilary Benn has insisted the Government did its “darndest” in terms of seeing the derelict GAA stadium in west Belfast rebuilt in time for the 2028 tournament, but said the inaction of the former government made it impossible.

The announcement has received criticism.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill described the actions of the Government on Friday evening, with announcements on Casement Park and the pausing of funding for city deals, as “absolutely shambolic”.

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Speaking in London on Monday afternoon, Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn said the Government concluded the risk of not completing the transformation in time was “just too high”.

“This is a major international football tournament, and we can’t be in the position where the country says, ‘yeah, we’re going to build that stadium’, and then not be able to do it,” he said.

“The risk was too great and reluctantly we came to the conclusion that the project would not go ahead.

“Where does the blame lie? Well I would point out in the 18 months between the awarding of the tournament to the UK and Ireland and the day of the general election, the last government talked a lot and did absolutely nothing to progress the project at all – which is why we were left with what turned out to be an impossible situation.

“I thought it was right, and Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, thought it was right that we let people know as swiftly as possible once the decision had been made because now we’ve got to take stock of how to take forward the rebuilding of Casement albeit in a very different form.”

He added: “We did our darndest to find a way of building it for the Euros. It wasn’t possible for the reasons that I have explained.”

Earlier, Irish premier Simon Harris said his government “is open” to have conversations about more that can be done to help in relation to Casement Park.

The Taoiseach said on Sunday that the Irish Government remained committed to the 50 million euro (£42 million) pledge to rebuild the sports ground.

When asked whether he was ruling out pledging further funding during a visit to Derry on Monday, Mr Harris said he was not ruling it out or in.

“The Irish Government is open to continuing to have conversations about anything more we can do to help, but we’re not quite there yet,” the Taoiseach said.

“What we now need to see is what the British Government and the Northern Ireland Executive wanted to do next.

“We stand ready to assist in any practical way that we can.”

Ms O’Neill criticised the “burying” of bad news on a Friday evening as “not good enough, not acceptable and not the way to do business”.

“What we need to see is maturity. What we need to see is a constructive relationship. That clearly is not what was borne out on Friday evening,” she said

“When it comes to the funding of Casement Park, it was the British Government that wrapped it up as part of the Euros bid. What we now need to see from the British Government is what is the plan B? What is the contribution towards building Casement Park?

“It has now been delayed for an additional period of time because of being wrapped up as part of the Euros.

“We will continue to engage with the British Government in terms of what does that financial contribution look like. That’s work that is going to have to continue because we have to get on now and get Casement built.

“It’s the remaining stadia that is still not delivered, that’s not acceptable. We have seen rugby invested in, soccer invested in, let’s just get Casement Park built as was committed to many, many years ago.”

Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said: “The big issues of deliverability, affordability, value for money, of course, those are and have to be considerations in terms of the funding.

“The rumoured amount of over £400 million does seem an extraordinary amount of money at a time of very difficult budget pressures.

“I do think as well there are big questions to be asked of the Irish Football Association (IFA) leadership around their plan B. There should be a legacy of the Euros for Northern Ireland.

“I know that they had focused on this project. I think there had been long concerns around the deliverability of this in the very tight timeframe that is set down given the history of this project in terms of legal challenges and others.

“I think the leadership of the IFA now need to outline what their plan B is, do they have a plan B and how can they ensure that the football community and football in Northern Ireland can have a legacy from the Euros investment that is happening elsewhere.”