The Progressive Democrats, and Mary Harney in particular, have done the taxpayer some service by insisting on an independent evaluation of the costs involved in providing a national stadium and sports campus.
The report has found that expenditure could run to £704 million (€888.8 million), more than double the amount estimated by the project chairman last year. The outcome of the professional analysis has sent the planners back to the drawing board and effectively killed the project for the lifetime of this Government.
As might be expected, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, whose brainchild this is, has attempted to treat the matter as a hiccup rather than a terminal setback. Effectively ignoring the swingeing criticisms contained in the report, he insisted the project would eventually go ahead in a slimmed-down form, with a stadium containing seating for 65,000 spectators. That may be good politics, given the commitments he has already made to the Football Association of Ireland about the provision of a new stadium, but it is bad management of public money.
Large projects like this must be properly costed and evaluated before they are sanctioned. Where they are not, it is the duty of the Minister for Finance to intervene. Unfortunately Mr Charlie McCreevy chose not to become publicly involved in questioning the grandiose scheme of the Taoiseach on this occasion. Instead, it was left to the Tánaiste and to the opposition parties to challenge the costings involved and the scale of the facilities planned.
As the Taoiseach's dream shattered under cold financial analysis, the Tánaiste took quiet pleasure at having been proved right. The text of the report released to the media had its most negative aspects underlined by the Progressive Democrats. In that regard, it found the Stadium's planning team needed to be strengthened and it criticised the lack of a business model. Such a model would agree the range and specification of facilities, including their use and on what basis; the capital budget, costs and income; the operational performance, including the sinking fund; the risks the Government would accept and how the facility would be managed and operated.
It is nearly three years since the Taoiseach proposed the stadium idea. At the time, the economy was growing strongly and historically high Exchequer surpluses were being generated. Money was no object and, as the economy grew, so did the project. But no firm decisions on financing were made by the Coalition Government. Campus Ireland was not provided for in the National Development Plan. As inflation and cash shortages slowed the delivery of new motorways, along with important water and sewage schemes, demands were made for the shelving of the project. At this late stage - and only because of a damning report by independent consultants - the Taoiseach has been forced to postpone action.