Friday, May 16, 2008

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1. Some good news on this front at last. London, what with the Dome and Wembley Stadium and the Olympics and Scotland, with its parliament building must not be the only places in the UK to show how good they are at underestimating, Belfast has got to strike out here and show that they can underestimate too along with the best of them.

   But underestimates in the “tens of millions” just won’t cut it. So let’s get creative here, we need some serious top-drawer type underestimating. Let’s get in the big boys. Maybe Ian Paisley Jr. might know a few.

   Posted by  on May 16, 2008 @ 12:55 PM

2. This ‘leak’ is clearly the next carefully prepared stage in dismantling the crazy Maze stadium idea. Thank God for the DUP in Government. (never thought i would say that)

   Posted by  on May 16, 2008 @ 02:22 PM

3. I wonder what the Minister for Social development makes of the Maze plan. Wasn’t her current Special Advisor one of the main advocates of the SIB stadium at the Maze?

   Posted by  on May 16, 2008 @ 02:23 PM

4. >>This ‘leak’ is clearly the next carefully prepared stage in dismantling the crazy Maze stadium idea. Thank God for the DUP in Government. (never thought i would say that)<<

   Yea like it’s gonna be cheaper in Belfast.

   Posted by  on May 16, 2008 @ 02:46 PM

5. There’s an obvious reason why all major infrastructure and I.T. projects are deliberately underestimated. You wouldn’t win the business otherwise.

   Posted by  on May 16, 2008 @ 02:48 PM

6. Here’s a thought - put your money where your mouth is.
   Here in Canada, for many public projects, the Government commits to 50% of the cost if the local hosting community can raise the other 50% in advance. It’s a good model; communities come together and have all sorts of fund raising events. Sometimes it takes 4 or 5 years to raise the money but they get there and take pride in what they’ve achieved.

   Posted by  on May 16, 2008 @ 04:44 PM

7. It was obvious from the very start that the Maze would never be built.

   As for Robinson:

   He also said if the Maze stadium was not given the go-ahead, stadia across Northern Ireland would be improved.

   In other words, no new stadium anywhere. The perfect storm of Olympics 2012 and an Assembly up and running and the powers that be blow it.

   There are winners though. Many in the DUP can sit happy in the knowledge that they scuppered the “shrine” while I am sure more than a few on the SF side will be secretly chuffed at the idea of no “national” stadium for Northern Ireland.

   Better to have further proof of the failed entity than a dreaded shared future.

   I’m sure a few will also be happy as the big loser in all this is the IFA.

   This means they will have to survive indefinitely on a tiny revenue stream while the IRFU, GAA (and dare I say it FAI)continue to prosper thanks to healthy incomes elsewhere.

   Posted by  on May 16, 2008 @ 06:02 PM

8. George

   Why should the IFA not get special help or in other words get the same cash that has been poured into the coffers of the GAA.

   Parity and all that!

   Posted by  on May 16, 2008 @ 09:22 PM

9. “There’s an obvious reason why all major infrastructure and I.T. projects are deliberately underestimated.”

   Civil Servants cooking the books for their masters?

   Treasury ‘Green Book’ guidance recommends that where there is uncertainty about costs, or where there have been cost overruns in similar projects, that cost estimates should be increased.

   If this is not done the civil servants who sign off low cost estimates should be disciplined, not promoted, as is more likely.

   Posted by  on May 17, 2008 @ 07:48 AM
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