The chairman of Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Ltd has strongly defended the project and pledged that it could be completed for the original estimate of €444 (£350) million.
Mr Paddy Teahon, a former secretary-general of the Department of the Taoiseach, said he was willing to stake his reputation on this.
"I have said that figure consistently for well over a year and I am saying it again. I am prepared to stake my reputation. I worked for a long time in the Irish public service, in particular on social partnership and the peace process, I'm staking that reputation, that if the Government gives the go-ahead, we will deliver the project for £350 million," he said on RTÉ News.
In a statement CSID Ltd said it welcomed the statement from the Government which made it clear that the Abbotstown campus "can and will be developed into a vital infrastructural asset". It intends studying the High Point Rendel Report in detail.
The total difference between the costings developed by CSID Ltd, and those contained in the report were "negligible", it said. It claims the figures which were highlighted in yesterday's reports were not the relevant ones in assessing the actual costs.
"As we have said publicly on several occasions, the bid process is not yet over. It still involves many months of intensive negotiations. When it has been finally completed, everyone will be able to move beyond even the most detailed professional estimates to hard concrete figures." CSID also defended the criticism in the HPR report that its team lacked experience.
"It is a matter of fact that the executive chairman and the combined executive services and project management teams have considerable international experience of projects of large scale and complexity."
The executive services team is Magahy & Co, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, PR firm WHPR and the project management team led by Davis Langdon PKS.
"The teams have considerable experience of delivery of major and complex international projects on time and on budget, international negotiation processes, and project and/or cost management of major international projects." CSID Ltd also said it had never planned a "sunken bowl" stadium, as suggested in the HPR report. It had always planned to build a stadium above ground..
Meanwhile a spokesman for CSID Ltd told The Irish Times that to date about €5.08 million has been spent on the project. A further €22.8 million has been spent on the aquatic centre.
He confirmed that €266,000 a month, or €3.2 million a year, was paid to the consortium providing executive services for the proposed stadium headed by businesswoman Ms Laura Magahy.
He pointed out that Ms Magahy did not keep all this money but had to pay the planners, architects, quantity surveyors and the others involved from that sum.
Mr Teahon, executive chairman of CSID Ltd, is paid about €38,000, and a further €19,000 for his role as chairman of the Digital Hub project in Dublin. The total amount is the difference between what he was paid as a secretary-general and his pension.
The board of Digital Media District Ltd. has negotiated a fixed fee contract with an executive services team which involves - Magahy & Co, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, BDO Simpson Xavier, Murray O'Laoire, and Judo Design.
They are being paid €140,000 a month until the end of 2003. Before this contract they were paid €1.5 million in fees for the first nine months.
Ms Magahy's firm is also involved in the development of a new children's hospital on the Mater Hospital site in Dublin.