The Government's determination to put to bed finally the debate about the national stadium is to be welcomed.
Four years and a day after announcing grandiose plans for what became known - and ridiculed - as the Bertie Bowl, for Abbotstown, Co Dublin, financial reality and common sense have prevailed in the decision yesterday to back a redeveloped Lansdowne Road. The Taoiseach's big dream is dead.
As an issue, the Abbotstown-Lansdowne Road-Croke Park arguments have generated far more heat than light over the years with vested interests on all sides fighting their corners in a debate that at one point almost threatened to undermine the Coalition Government.
Countless feasibility studies, bickering over funding for the GAA and petty squabbling by Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats have served to dilute any kudos the Government might have expected to garner from yesterday's decision.
The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), who have had to bide their time and bite their tongues in the face of such political ineptitude, may have deserved better. But at least they will now have the opportunity to present their games in a stadium that should compare with the best in Europe.
Their welcome for the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road, however, will be tempered by the knowledge that the project is bound to encounter planning problems in its initial phase; that the ground will have to be closed for a period after 2006; and that they will certainly face logistical difficulties in finding venues to play their high-profile games while the new Lansdowne Road stadium is under construction.
Inevitably, the spotlight will now switch back to Croke Park hosting these games. But it seems unlikely that the GAA will bow to any pressure to open its gates - even as a one-off gesture - unless it receives the outstanding €38 million in grants towards the cost of developing Croke Park which was withheld by the Government in 2001. But, if the GAA is true to form, that might not be enough in the short-term to convince the association that the benefits of a public relations coup would outweigh the significance of changing its rules to accommodate the shortcomings of other sports organisations in the national interest.
That mistrust may be misplaced but it has its roots in a failure by successive governments to develop a coherent sports strategy in tandem with modern sports infrastructure.
The belated decision to redevelop Lansdowne Road is an important step towards bringing the Republic up to European standards in sports facilities. The Taoiseach held out to the last for a fig leaf to cover his embarrassment over the whole political exercise. For this reason, a Sports Academy is to be built at Abbotstown with unspecified Exchequer funding. Yesterday's decision could, and should, have been taken five years ago and there would be a spanking new national stadium in Dublin now.