Redevelopment announced for Lansdowne Road

Ireland's Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, John O'Donoghue, has announced that the Irish Government is to provide “substantial funding” towards the redevelopment of Landsdowne Road stadium.

The new €300 million state-of-the-art stadium facilities at Lansdowne Road will remain the home of Irish rugby and Republic of Ireland football.

Mr O’Donoghue said: "This is a landmark day for Irish sport. We are bringing our national sporting infrastructure into the 21st Century, on a much-loved site that resonates with history, tradition and some of our greatest successes. Our international sports of rugby and soccer will now have a platform on which they can showcase themselves and Ireland to the world and from which they can develop and build on the great progress they have made over the last 15 years."

The stadium will be a 50,000 all-seater partly roofed stadium, which will be built on the axis of the existing stadium. Development will commence as soon as possible and, if all goes to schedule, it should be completed by 2008.

The new stadium will be designed to meet all the current international standards for rugby and soccer and the pitch area will be of sufficient size to accommodate GAA games.

The standard and facilities will be broadly equivalent to those at Croke Park, which is a much-admired state of the art stadium. It will include about 64 corporate boxes and 8,000 premium seats as well as substantially improved back-of-the house facilities both for players and spectators.

The estimated cost of this project is put at between €250 to €300 million as the project is realised over the next five years.

Approved is Irish Government support of €167 million, which is expected to translate into cumulative outlays of just over €190 million over five years.

Mr O’Donoghue added: "The hallmark of the stadium process has been one of consultation and collaboration. It has seen an excellent partnership develop between our largest sporting National Governing Bodies - the FAI, IRFU and the GAA. It will involve co-operation and consultation right throughout the process with the residents in the area around Lansdowne Road. And most importantly it is a symbol of the Government's commitment to develop sport at every level in this country and for all the people of Ireland.

"The Taoiseach's vision for the creation of a modern sporting infrastructure has sustained the debate on how best to ensure that international sporting events can be staged in this country in state of the art facilities in difficult budgetary conditions. Without his support and encouragement today's twin announcements on stadium development and sports campus facilities would not have been possible."

(GB)