Irish cabinet pulls plug on 'Bertie Bowl'

The Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, has suffered a crushing personal and political setback with the near-certain collapse of his hopes to build a new national stadium in Dublin.

Mr Ahern was so closely associated with the project that it was popularly referred to as "the Bertie Bowl" and was seen as his attempt to create a long-term legacy commemorating his time as Taoiseach. But with money suddenly much tighter in the Irish Republic, it has been announced that no public funds are to be given to the project.

Although Mr Ahern says the stadium might yet be built with private money, most observers believe that the decision by the Irish cabinet has in effect killed off the idea.

Political commentators have joked that Mr Ahern has switched from Bertie Bowl to begging bowl, saying he has been humiliated by the downfall of an idea which was close to his heart for years.

He was re-elected as Prime Minister in May after crushing the opposition with a campaign in which his Fianna Fail party concentrated on playing up a feel-good factor generated by years of unprecedented prosperity. His triumph was so complete that the leaders of the two largest opposition parties, Fine Gael and Labour, have since resigned.

Ironically, the opposition's warnings that Mr Ahern's administration was living beyond its means were soon borne out as the new government moved quickly to curb public spending. It maintained that it was making adjustments rather than cutbacks.

In the more difficult economic climate, the Bertie Bowl came to be seen as an item of almost personal extravagance. Mr Ahern's partners in the coalition government, the Progressive Democrats, have always been more fiscally restrained than his Fianna Fail party, and have never shared his enthusiasm for such a stadium. In the end they refused to go along with Mr Ahern's pet project.

The leader of the Progressive Democrats, Mary Harney, said: "There is a tight budgetary situation, a very different budgetary situation from a number of months ago, and we have to bear that in mind.

"For me it was always a question of how you spend taxpayers' money, and the emphasis has to be on health, education and infrastructure."

The Government is to place newspaper advertisements seeking private-sector interest in financing the stadium.

Mr Ahern said: "It is not possible to use exchequer money in the medium term on the stadium. Whether there will be expressions of interest or not we will just have to wait and see. I hope there will."

John O'Donoghue, the Sports minister, said the Government would seek private funding for the venture "very aggressively". But he admitted: "It would be optimistic that we will obtain private sector interest in this venture.

"The Taoiseach is disappointed and I am disappointed but the reality of the situation is that we have to look at the overall running of the country."

The announcement was described by opposition spokesmen as "one of the greatest U-turns in political history".

The Labour MP Pat Rabbitte said: "It is difficult to understand why the Taoiseach has devoted so much time and effort to this project at a time when there were so many other priorities crying out for his attention."

Mr Ahern's government will be anxious that voters do not punish it by voting against the Nice Treaty, which will be put to a referendum in October or November.

The apparent abandonment of the stadium may also have implications for the joint Scotland-Ireland bid to host the 2008 European football championships.