Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 12: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the position regarding the proposed redevelopment of Lansdowne Road; the reason Government funding for the development of the new stadium has been suspended; if public money being used to fund the scheme will be lost if it does not proceed; the reason the project is being delayed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28322/05]

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 37: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the projected timescale for the redevelopment of the Lansdowne Road Stadium; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28096/05]

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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I will take Questions Nos. 12 and 37 together.

Since I announced the appointment of the design and project management teams for the Lansdowne Road Stadium project in April this year, work on developing the conceptual design for the new stadium has been proceeding at full speed. The design for the new Lansdowne Stadium is now completed and I will be launching the new detailed design on Monday, 17 October. There has been no delay to the project and the project is meeting all the target schedule dates set for it. Now that the detailed project design has been completed, it is expected that a planning application for the project will be lodged by the end of 2005. It is not possible, at this stage, to gauge exactly how long it may take to secure full planning permission. However, in anticipation of an early and favourable outcome to the planning application, I expect that construction work on the stadium would begin during 2007. The period of construction is projected to be 29 months.

As the Deputy will be aware, the Government has committed €191 million towards the cost of the project with the balance being provided by the IRFU and FAI. It has been agreed that the Exchequer funding will be front-loaded in the development of the project and this will become operational again once certain necessary procedural arrangements, which are the subject of consultations between the Department and the sporting bodies, are put in place.