THE GAA has reverted to its previous plans for a 34,000 capacity stadium at Casement Park in Andersonstown.

GAA President Jarlath Burns said the plans will reduce the cost of the rebuild and would be more “modest and basic” compared to that which was envisaged for the West Belfast venue when it was part of the successful Irish and UK Euro 2028 bid.

Bringing the stadium up to UEFA standards saw the cost of the proposed GAA venue skyrocket from initial estimates. Then in September a cash-strapped British government said that it could no longer keep its commitment to part-fund the stadium's rebuild, adding that the new stadium could not be built in time to host games during the Euros in four years' time. In the fall-out that followed, the GAA branded that decision as a “missed opportunity” and one that “our entire society will look back on with considerable regret”.

On Thursday Jarlath Burns led a GAA delegation in a meeting with Stormont’s Communities Minister Gordon Lyons. Afterwards, Mr Burns said he believed the Casement rebuild was a “priority” for the DUP Minister.
 
“We have had a relook at the type of stadium that is going to be built based on the fact that we’re not getting the Euros any more,” said Mr Burns.

“He (Mr Lyons) took all of that on board. It’s a significantly smaller cost because we’ve taken a lot of the fit-out away from it to try and make it as small a cost to the public purse as possible because we are aware that there are a lot of demands on the public purse at the moment, and we are responsible people, and we want to make sure that when Casement Park is built that it will be built properly to safety standards, but not to too much of a luxurious standard that it is going to take money away from other important projects.
 
“We are still looking at a capacity of over 30,000, we can still do that with a more basic and modest fit-out, because we think that it is very important that although we get our stadium, which is part of obviously the stadium strategy and the infrastructure strategy and the Programme for Government priorities, that we do so in a responsible way. 

“We have managed to retain the number of people who will fit into it while having it to a lower specification.”