The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has said that conflict with the GAA is "unnecessary" after the Government's latest €40 million subvention for Croke Park. Lorna Siggins reports.
Mr Ahern reiterated yesterday that the payment was being made without conditions, but said he personally felt it would be a "huge pity" if home soccer and rugby internationals had to be played abroad due to a lack of facilities at home, and he believed many in the GAA would feel the same.
"This is a matter for and a debate within the GAA. I think they know the situation," the Taoiseach said, adding that the Government hadn't put conditions on the organisation for the latest subvention.
Mr Ahern was speaking in Galway where he attended several functions yesterday, including the opening of the €100 million private Galway Clinic.
"The GAA is a large, voluntary organisation with its own democratic process," Mr Ahern said.
"I think they will be aware that the FAI and the IRFU, in the short-term, have to make decisions about where they play their games for the few years now that Lansdowne Road will be closed."
"We are now committed to working with the FAI and IRFU to the development of the Lansdowne site and that will mean any international matches - if there's not a location - will have to be played outside the State, maybe in Murrayfield or Cardiff Arms Park for the rugby matches and perhaps Old Trafford or somewhere else for the soccer matches. This would be a huge pity," he said.
"I know many people in the GAA know that too and that's a matter for their consideration."
The Government did not want to enter "into a conflict which was not necessary" with the GAA.
Opening the Galway Clinic, which was developed by Blackrock Clinic founder Mr James Sheehan, the Taoiseach said it represented "a flagship model for private healthcare in the 21st century".
It was also the first private hospital to avail of the tax relief provision for private hospital development under the Finance Acts.
Referring to a "period of intense change and reform in the health services in Ireland", the Taoiseach said the new Health Service executive would develop "a strategic relationship with the private hospital sector" as part of its remit.
Almost 50 public patients have been treated at the clinic since it began taking public patients in August, and Mr Ahern welcomed the fact that the National Treatment Purchase Fund was availing of its presence to reduce waiting lists in public hospitals.
Earlier, the Taoiseach paid a brief visit to the Galway Children's Discovery Museum, and began his series of engagements with the formal opening of the refurbished Treasure Chest, a gift shop in the city centre which recently expanded its premises when it paid over €7 million for additional retail space. The shop, which first opened in 1968 in rented premises, is owned by a prominent Galway business-woman, Mrs Mary Bennett, who is chairwoman of the ISPCC, and a former national president of the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland.
She is also a former director of Bord Fáilte, Aer Lingus, the Irish Goods Council and was twice chairwoman of Ireland-West Tourism.
Mrs Bennett is not a member of Fianna Fáil, she said yesterday, but had met the Taoiseach previously in her role as ISPCC chairwoman. Before the Taoiseach's departure, she presented him with a model Galway Hooker, carved from a piece of 4,000-year-old bog oak