NI Infrastructure Minister gives Casement Park green light

The new look Casement Park, Belfast.

Northern Ireland Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon is set to recommend approval for the long-awaited redevelopment of Casement Park.

It has been over 11 years since Ulster Council first set out plans to build a new provincial stadium, with Casement Park becoming the preferred venue.

In 2013, planning approval for a 38,000-capacity stadium was given with a series of set-backs ever since, including a High Court legal battle brought by some residents which quashed the approval.

A fresh planning application was submitted in February 2017 and the development looks to now have the green light after getting approval from the Infrastructure Minister.

"This has been a complex application and it has been a very, very long time under consideration," said Mallon.

"I have carefully considered all of the representations and I believe this will be a landmark stadium, it will be transformative for gaelic games, it will be transformative in terms of the economy of west Belfast and Belfast more generally and I believe it will be truly transformational in sporting terms, in social terms, in economic terms for the whole of Ulster." 

Today I have announced that I am recommending Casement for approval. I believe this landmark stadium will be transformational in sporting, social & economic terms for Ulster & our island. pic.twitter.com/OCkWBgbav8

— Nichola Mallon (@NicholaMallon) October 13, 2020