October 13th, 1998: The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, says the Government had decided to commission a feasibility "study for the development of `A Stadium for the New Century' ". At the time, a gift of £50 million pledged by J.P. McManus, the horse racing figure, for the creation of a "world-class facility" was seen as a substantial contribution to its capital cost. Further contributions were to be sought from the private sector, such as advance rentals of corporate suites.
October 22nd, 1998: The steering committee for the project holds its first meeting at Government Buildings. It is chaired by Derek Keogh, former chief executive of Aer Rianta, who had been advising Mr McManus. The GAA, FAI and IRFU are all represented on the committee, in line with Mr Ahern's vision of the stadium as a "state-of-the art" facility to accommodate Gaelic games, soccer, rugby and athletics. No questions were raised about the availability of Croke Park.
March 8th, 1999: Following a tender competition, the steering committee recommends appointing a consortium of consultants headed by PriceWaterhouse
Coopers to carry out the feasibility study which would, as the Taoiseach put it, "show us whether we are in cloud-cuckooland or not". In the meantime, the FAI had announced it intended to build its own 45,000-seat stadium as an "emotional home" for Irish soccer, at an estimated cost of £65 million.
May 31st, 1999: In their first presentation to the steering committee, the feasibility study consultants suggest a stadium with 80,000 seats - the same size as Wembley Stadium, Stade de France and Rome's Olympic Stadium - which could attract major international mobile sporting events. They also proposed that the stadium concept should be broadened into a "Campus of Sporting Excellence", catering for as many sports as possible on the same site.
June 11th, 1999: At a meeting in Government Buildings, an FAI delegation is told by Paddy Teahon, then secretary general of the Taoiseach's Department, that the Government wanted the FAI to "fully participate" in the National Stadium project. The issue of a conflict of interest in architects Henry J. Lyons and Partners acting for the FAI while also participating in the PWC-led feasibility study was raised, with the FAI arguing that this made no sense.
June 28th, 1999: FAI chief executive Bernard O'Byrne tells the steering committee it was not opposed to the National Stadium, though he envisaged that the FAI would only have occasion to use it "once every six or seven years". By this stage, Henry J. Lyons and Partners, who were designing the FAI's stadium, had withdrawn from the PWC-led consortium to be replaced by Scott Tallon Walker and Abbotstown had emerged as the "preferred site".
July 13th, 1999: The Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Dr McDaid, announces that more than £11 million could be made available to National League clubs throughout the State if the FAI agreed to abandon its stadium project and throw its weight behind the Taoiseach's concept. This was seen as an attempt to "drive a wedge" between the National League clubs and the FAI over its plans to build a stadium at CityWest.
July 26th, 1999: The steering committee is told by its consultants that the estimated cost of building the National Stadium would be £160 million; that no detailed costing had been done for the indoor arena and other facilities; that private cars would be "the predominant means of transport" to the Abbotstown site and 14,400 parking spaces would be required to cater for them, as well as a motorway interchange, 11 km of roads and three bridges.
August 11th, 1999: Philip Furlong, assistant secretary at the Department of Finance and member of the committee, notes that the consultants wrote to 100 companies "alerting them to the Government's plans", but there was "not much evidence of a readiness to contribute to capital costs". There was also little prospect of developing a public-private partnership, given that the French government had to bail out the partnership element of Stade de France.
August 26th, 1999: Julie O'Neill, assistant secretary at Tourism, Sport and Recreation, tells Donagh Morgan, secretary of the steering committee, that the feasibility study lacked "any real clarity" on why the Government should embark on building a national stadium and put forward a "flimsy" case for the "Campus of Sporting Excellence". It was also "most unlikely" that the GAA would pay to use the stadium when it could hold all its major events at Croke Park.
September 27th, 1999: Steering committee agrees on a final draft of the study and recommends that the Government should go ahead with an 80,000-seat stadium at Abbotstown, saying it would fulfil the Taoiseach's vision of "an icon for the island of Ireland in the new millennium". The committee also endorses the proposed "Campus of Sporting Excellence", then estimated to cost £51 million, but says this needed to be further researched "as a matter of urgency".
October 1st, 1999: Philip Furlong tells the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, that he believes the consultants had "not adequately articulated the vision behind the concept" - and that their overall cost estimate of £281 million had not been accepted uncritically by the steering committee. "It is absolutely vital that the Government should be able to produce both a soundly-based strategic vision and financial case for the project if it is to carry the day", he says. While the donation from J.P. McManus was "most welcome", it was "inescapable that the Government . . . will have to pick up a hefty tab for this desirable but hardly vitally necessary sporting infrastructure".
The memo also expresses "particular concern" over the low level of projected use of the stadium, at six major events per year, and says that although the consultants had concluded it would not require an annual subsidy, this left "little margin for error".
January 25th, 2000: After a three-month hiatus the Government accepts the steering committee's recommendations in full, with a view to having the proposed sports campus at Abbotstown completed in 2005. No account was taken in the memorandum on which this decision was based of the cost of relocating all of the State laboratories on the 500-acre site, even though this was likely to be "massive", according to an internal Department of Finance memo.
January 26th, 2000: The Taoiseach announces the Government's decision at a press conference. He describes the proposed stadium, then costed at £168 million, as a "vital piece of infrastructure" and says the Government is prepared to pay for it. He also places in the Dail library a copy of the legal agreement with J.P. McManus on his £50 million contribution, which is to be supplied through a Geneva-based bank, Pictet et Compagnie.
February 4th, 2000: R.J. Curran, second secretary at the Department of Finance, formally writes to Paddy Teahon, registering his Department's "dissatisfaction at not being able to obtain a copy of the Memorandum for Government on `A Stadium for the New Century' prior to its submission . . . despite the very significant costs of the project", so that it could be adequately considered. He points out that this "was, of course, a breach of Cabinet procedures".
Mr Curran's letter says his Department was now concerned by media reports that the Government wanted to incorporate a 50-metre swimming pool in the proposed campus, even though this had not been mentioned in the memorandum and would add some £20 million to the cost of the project. It also expresses concern that the relocation of laboratories at Abbotstown could cost more than £100 million and requests a full breakdown of these costs.
February 7th, 2000: Mr Curran writes to the Minister for Finance saying initial estimates for relocating the Abbotstown laboratories to facilitate construction of the sports campus came to £84 million. "The cost of the facility as put before Government on January 25th was £281 million. Addition of the costs above would bring the figure to £365 million. Normally, a cost addition of this magnitude would lead to a rethink of the whole project," he says.
February 22nd, 2000: The PWC-led consortium is commissioned to "further develop" the concept of a sports campus, including an aquatic centre (incorporating a 50-metre swimming pool), to be ready "if feasible" in time to hold the Special Olympics in 2003, medical and sports science facilities, a "multi-sport dome", indoor and outdoor training facilities and office buildings for national sporting bodies. The consultants were to report by April 17th.
March 8th, 2000: In the Dail, Mr Bernard Allen, Fine Gael spokesman on sport, says escalating costs meant that the bill for Abbotstown was likely to exceed £500 million, which was "a scandal", and it should be investigated by a special Dail committee. Dr McDaid admits that "there may be additional costs" for the project. "The costs may be underestimated or overestimated, but we will go ahead with it because this country needs a national stadium".
April 4th, 2000: An internal Department of Finance memo notes that a State company, Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Ltd (CSID), had been set up to "drive" the Abbotstown project, with Paddy Teahon as executive chairman, the Office of Public Works as project manager and an "executive services team" providing management, legal, financial, communications and PR services. "Precisely how all of this will hang together is not yet clear".
July 7th, 2000: Mr Teahon writes to Dermot Gallagher, his successor as secretary general of the Taoiseach's Department, telling him that CSID was about to enter "significant expenditure commitments" on the aquatic centre and the employment of its executive services team. But he did not believe it made sense for either the Taoiseach's Department or the Department of Finance to "second-guess" its spending decisions, as he was happy to account for them.
July 12th, 2000: Prompted by Denis O'Brien, chairman of the organising committee for the Special Olympics Committee in 2003, the Taoiseach secures Government agreement to include an aquatic centre in the Abbotstown campus, at a cost to the Exchequer of "up to £30 million". The board of CSID decides this facility - then estimated at £48 million - is to be procured on a DBFOM (design, build, finance operate and maintain) basis from the private sector.
July 20th, 2000: Following a tender advertised in April, Magahy and Company - run by Ms Laura Magahy, with whom Paddy Teahon worked closely in Temple Bar - is recommended to provide executive services. Ms Magahy's firm would later be appointed to a similar role in relation to the planned Digital Media Village in the Liberties, which is also headed by Mr Teahon. It is also in charge of relocating Temple Street Children's Hospital to the Mater.
July 26th, 2000: R.J. Curran writes to Dermot Gallagher expressing concern that a fee of 2 per cent of the development costs at Abbotstown had been negotiated with Magahy and Company and a monthly "float" of £110,000. "No reference to them is made in the Memorandum for Government", he says. His Department was concerned that this arrangement would provide no incentive to contain costs "within the decided limit for Exchequer involvement".
September 25th, 2000: The inaugural meeting of an inter-departmental Project Steering Group for Abbotstown is informed by Ms Magahy that her company and its team of consultants - Price Waterhouse Coopers, Wilson Hartnell PR, McHugh Consultants (planners), Thorburn Colquhoun (engineers), Seamus Monaghan and Partners (quantity surveyors) and Mr Ronnie Delaney - would work to "co-ordinate and pull the project together". By this stage, it is acknowledged that Abbotstown could cost £550 million, of which £150 million was expected to come from the private sector - in addition to the £50 million pledged by J.P. McManus. Con Haugh of the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation notes that, thus far, the Government had only approved the stadium and aquatic centre elements of the project and says any further facilities would have to be referred back to Ministers for approval.
Ms Magahy says CSID is committed to public procurement rules and would work to ensure "value for money". Apart from seeking planning permission for the aquatic centre, she tells the Project Steering Group that it wanted the rest of the site designated as a strategic development zone under the Planning Act, 2000. (This would effectively mean bypassing the normal planning process for each element of the scheme once the overall package was approved).
October 17th, 2000: The Taoiseach, answering questions from the then Opposition leader, Mr John Bruton, about the latest estimate of £550 million, misinforms the Dail that "the cost of the stadium element of this project was, and still is, £281 million" - a canard first uttered a week earlier by Dr McDaid; in fact, that figure was an overall estimate for the entire campus. (Mr Ahern later corrected the Dail record and apologised for misleading deputies.)
November 2nd, 2000: The Project Steering Group is told by Laura Magahy that CSID intended to "put out a call for proposals for the remaining elements of the sports campus" early in December, again on a DBFOM basis. "We envisage being in a contractual situation for those elements by the middle of next year," she says, adding an assurance that all major decisions that would arise as the development progressed would be submitted to the Government.
November 9th, 2000: Ms Magahy issues a "drawdown" request to the Taoiseach's Department for £1.24 million to cover her company's expenses in providing executive services for CSID to the end of December. The payment was made on the understanding that proper records would be kept, that all spending is "fully vouched" and that CSID "will not incur expenditure or enter into commitments which will lead to additional unapproved demands on the Exchequer".
November 28th, 2000: On behalf of CSID, Ms Magahy circulates a brochure on "Sports Campus Ireland @ Abbots town" to all TDs and senators to bring them up to date on the project. It also emerges that the development company is anxious to press ahead with legislation to have it established on a statutory footing "as the issue of land transfer is quite urgent". (Though headings were drafted in mid-October 2000, a Bill has yet to be presented to the Dail.)
December 1st, 2000: Given escalating construction costs, R.J. Curran writes to Dermot Gallagher stressing the need to have the aquatic centre - "bedded down . . . before embarking on or diverting too much managerial or planning resources to further elements" of the project. He is, however, reassured by Mr Gallagher's belief that the framework for procuring the aquatic centre "will ensure that the exposure of the Exchequer is carefully monitored and controlled".
December 14th, 2000: The Project Steering Group is informed by CSID that DBFOM tenders for the aquatic centre had been narrowed down to three competitors - Bovis, Rohcon and Sisks - and the winner would be decided within days. A decision was also imminent on a master plan competition for Abbotstown and advertisements had been placed in the EU Journal and elsewhere seeking expressions of interest from prospective developers for the rest of the site.
December 21st, 2000: A crisis arises over the absence of powers in CSID's memorandum and articles of association to sign a contract with Rohcon, which had won the competition for the aquatic centre in partnership with the operators of the Tralee Aquadome. An amended version is submitted by Donagh Morgan, now working for CSID, seeking the urgent signature of the Minister for Finance - otherwise the 2003 Special Olympics deadline might be missed.
January 1st, 2001: In line with a Government decision in October, responsibility for Abbotstown is transferred from the Taoiseach's Department to the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation, making its secretary general, Margaret Hayes, the "accountable officer" for all expenditures on the project from that day onwards. As a further safeguard, CSID agrees to the Comptroller and Auditor General auditing its accounts on a continuing basis.
January 19th, 2001: German architects Behnisch and Behnisch are selected as winners of the master plan competition; one of their strengths is that they designed Munich's 1972 Olympics Park. Stefan Behnisch, who had never previously visited Ireland, then becomes a member of the jury to select panels of architects for the design of the stadium and other facilities at Abbotstown, in line with Ms Magahy's commitment to achieve "architectural excellence". It subsequently transpires that the OPW, as project manager, had strongly advised CSID against nominating panels of architects on the grounds that consortiums competing for the DBFOM contract could not be compelled to choose any of the selected architects. It warned that there was "potential for confusion and conflict" in the assessment process, but agreed to supply two of its leading architects for the jury when CSID decided to go ahead anyway.
February 23rd, 2001: The draft master plan as well as a model of the aquatic centre, for which Fingal County Council had granted planning permission, are unveiled by Dr McDaid. The selected panels of architects are also released, provoking raised eyebrows among the profession, whose institute had organised the selection process on CSID's behalf. A furious row breaks out when it becomes known that 34 Irish firms were excluded from the panels.
March 7th, 2001: The OPW resigns as project manager for Abbotstown to take a more background role as adviser to the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation. Though sources insist this move was a matter of choice, it is known that there was friction between the OPW and CSID's executive services team over their respective responsibilities. The serious disagreement that arose on the issue of selecting panels of architects was the latest in a long line.
March 9th, 2001: Abbotstown receives a major boost when the FAI decides to abandon its plans for Eircom Park at CityWest and throw its weight behind the Taoiseach's grand projet. It is estimated that the FAI would net at least £57 million - and possibly as much as £125 million - over 14 years from the highly-complex deal, including a direct inducement of £27 million and a large share of the revenue from corporate box and advance ticket sales.
April 3rd, 2001: Without consulting the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, the Taoiseach offers the GAA £60 million towards meeting the escalating bill for the redevelopment of Croke Park as an inducement to playing some of its matches at the proposed National Stadium. Four days later, after the "no strings" gift was announced at the GAA's annual congress, a motion to open up Croke Park to soccer and rugby narrowly fails to win the required two-thirds majority.
April 6th, 2001: CSID dispatches outline bid documentation to the six international consortiums interested in bidding for the Abbotstown DBFOM contract. It makes clear that they "are not required to commission any of the architectural practices on the panels and are free to contract with whomsoever they choose". It also says that if a bidder engages any of the selected architects, CSID "accepts no responsibility for the performance of that practice". The competing groups are required to have their bids in by May 31st, after which they will be assessed on the following criteria: Design (150 points), Build and Maintain (100), Operate (100) and Finance (200). According to CSID's schedule, a shortlist of three is to be chosen on June 29th, followed by detailed negotiations to conclude on September 28th with the selection of a "preferred bidder" on October 28th, after which a contract would be signed.
