As chairman of Sports Campus Ireland, the first requirement on me is to deliver value for money and full accountability to the Irish people. That is entirely as it should be: the people of Ireland are entitled to absolute assurance that their money is being wisely used in their interests.

So let me say right at the outset that I and the board of the company totally support the principle of an independent value-for-money audit into the costs and benefits of Sports Campus Ireland.

An additional layer of scrutiny is provided in respect of high-profile projects like the campus by tough, hard questioning in the media. In a democracy, every public project should be debated and it is absolutely right that serious questions be posed about decisions that will have repercussions into the future.

But the analysis must be based on fact rather than myth and there are too many myths around this debate. For that reason, I intend to concentrate in this piece on setting out six basic facts that have been ignored in the recent hype.

FACT 1:

This is a £350 million project - not a £1 billion project

The best professional estimate we can secure of the total Exchequer cost of the project is £350 million. Yes, it is a big project. The day it was launched the Taoiseach said this was the first time in our history that Ireland could afford to invest in a project like this. In return, taxpayers will get something of value to generations of families and our entire community.

The project is now in the middle of an international tendering competition. Some of the biggest names in sports development in the world are taking part. That means they want to be part of the financing of this project which, in turn, gives us the best possible opportunity to limit the exposure of taxpayers.

In a couple of months, when that competition is over, we will be able to report the outcome to the Government and to any independent auditor appointed. Then we will know in precise and concrete terms what the private sector is prepared to invest, what the total cost is estimated to be and what Exchequer contribution will be required.

In other words, is our professional estimate of £350 million Exchequer cost for the entire campus too large or too small? I would have every confidence that fairminded people will be able to be reassured once and for all then that references to a £1 billion exposure for taxpayers are completely wide of the mark.

FACT 2:

This project is not being built at the expense of anything else

I am absolutely certain that if any member of the Government had to choose between a hospital or a football stadium, not one of them would choose a football stadium. I believe that is true of every member of the Opposition too - just as it is true of everyone working on the project.

Yes, Ireland needs more investment in health; a high-level team is developing a strategy document to pinpoint where and how much. We need more investment in roads, telecommunications, housing and general infrastructure, but the investment needed in these areas is happening now and runs to many billions of necessary spending. If the only choice open to us to help get rid of the waiting lists of today is to abandon a project for the future, then let's abandon it. But I think most of us know, deep down, that this is not a choice we need to make.

The honest reality is this. This project is being built out of a Budget surplus. Because of the size of that surplus, more than EIGHT THOUSAND MILLION POUNDS (that's £8,000,000,000) has been set aside to write off against the na tional debt or to provide for future pensions. If Sports Campus Ireland was aban doned, the only benefit over the next four or five years would be to increase that figure of £8 billion by £350 million.

I honestly believe that such an approach would become a source of the dee pest regret for everyone in years to come, because if this project goes away, there is never likely to be an opportunity to resurrect it.

FACT 3:

Investment in infrastructure is being made because it is necessary - not because of the campus

Let's suppose we cancel the campus. Should we then immediately move the people of Blanchardstown down the priority list for public transport improvements? Surely no one is arguing that - not even the people who say that the cost of public transport has to be added to the cost of the campus?

If we cancel the project, should we also cancel the development and upgrading of the State laboratories? Despite everything we have learned about animal disease and food, despite the fact that some of the laboratories were planned to move before ever the campus was on the drawing board, should we abandon the decision to put state-of-the-art facilities in place?

Again, the truth is this. If a decision is taken not to proceed with the campus, very substantial investment will still be needed in the infrastructure necessary for the best possible quality of life for thousands of families in the Blanchardstown area. Blanchardstown is large enough already in population terms to qualify as one of Ireland's 10 largest towns.

At times the campus will undoubtedly lead to increases in traffic in the area. We have a responsibility to minimise that and to accept that some element of additional cost is involved. But even if there were no campus, we need to make the investment in road, rail, Luas and metro, and it is going to happen.

I accept that there is an opportunity cost associated with the use of a site owned by the State for the campus. The site was picked after careful study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers - and the Abbotstown site is not only the most accessible site to the whole of Ireland, but is also a hugely versatile and flexible one.

FACT 4:

Support for the IRFU, the FAI and the GAA is necessary even if we never develop the campus

There is no doubt that with sufficient support and commitment, the Gaelic Athletic Association, the Football Association of Ireland and the Irish Rugby Foot ball Association could build their own national headquarters. But what would happen to the games they are trying to develop in the process?

This is a small country, albeit one of the richest in the world, uniquely with four national games - football, hurling, soccer and rugby. The three sporting bodies involved in those four games depend essentially on voluntary effort to develop.

There simply is not enough voluntary funding or corporate support to do everything. That's why, rather than it being a liability, it is actually one of the great strengths of the campus project that it will lift the burden of stadium development from the sporting bodies - and from many other national governing bodies as well. In future, they will be free to invest in the development of their sports without the huge inhibition of debt.

FACT 5:

The investment in the campus, together with the support for the major governing bodies, will aid rather than undermine the commitment to develop sport in communities

THE facts are that massive amounts of money - both capital and current - are spent each year on new and better sporting facilities all over Ireland. I regard that as a hugely positive development, but it may be worth spelling out the scale of the investment in recent years:

I have already referred to the fact that the support agreed for the FAI and the GAA will enable them to make even further investments at club, county and community level. So too will the very significant income streams which will flow from holding key matches in Stadium Ireland. All told, there is every reason to believe that the development of the stadium and the campus will contribute positively, in a financial sense, to the development of sport in local communities, rather than drain money away from it.

FACT 6:

This is a Government project, based on Government decisions

It was the Government which decided to commission a feasibility study and to accept its recommendations. Further Government decisions led to the establishment of Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Ltd, the appointment of its board, the identity of board members and the al location of resources to the company. The Government decided to relocate the State laboratories and to set up a specialist high-level group to plan for the public transport needs of the Blanchardstown area.

At every stage of the process, the full weight of internal Government scrutiny has been brought to bear on the decision-making process. The Irish Times published last week, for example, a number of searching comments by senior civil servants. That is their job, as everyone who has served in government knows. Civil servants are paid to scrutinise and question - but every civil servant accepts that governments are paid to make decisions.

The mandate of the development company, because it is so committed to value for money and to accountability, requires it to proceed through open tendering processes conducted in accordance with European directives. This it has done and the Government accepted its recommendations in respect of the outcome of the first tendering competition - to build the pool at Abbotstown. The Government decided the financial allocation for that too.

The Government has made no decisions in relation to other specific elements of the campus and has committed no additional resources. The reason it has not done so is simple - there are no decisions to make. An international, fully open and publicised, totally accountable tendering process is under way. Its purpose is to find partners who will be involved in designing, building, financing and operating the campus and/or specific elements of it.

When that process is complete, it will be a matter for the Government in the final analysis to decide whether it is happy with the result. In other words, it will be Government, in the final analysis, which will decide whether this project proceeds beyond that point. That is as it should be.

THIS is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; a chance, because we can afford it now, to build something for our kids and their kids; a chance to use the resources we have to attract and leverage additional resources so that a unique partnership between the public and private sector will ensure that no sector of society has to bear a burden.

Sporting achievement, however, has always been about more than money. There have to be targets, mountains to be climbed. The ability to host competitions at the highest possible level and to attract the world's leading sports people to Ireland are among the things we need to be able to do if we are to compete successfully on the world stage. For the first time in our history, we are in a position to put an infrastructure in place to make us part of the "big picture" in world sport.

What a tragedy it would be if we were to turn our backs on that opportunity.