Casement Park: Spending Review

Lord Morrow Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Morrow (DUP)]

My Lords, I commend the Minister on her remarks at the beginning. As a former representative of the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly, I agree with her about the horrendous incident this morning. We extend our sympathy to all those involved and wish them a speedy recovery. It is a real tragedy.

I commend the noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, on her Question, as it presents an opportunity to bring some clarity as to why the GAA finds itself in this position. The fact that this development has not happened is not due to any negligence or reluctance on the part of the Executive or Assembly at Stormont but rather due to strong opposition from the nationalist community who reside in close proximity to the proposed development. Does the Minister agree with me that funding for all sports must be distributed in a fair and equitable manner?

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

I absolutely do agree with the noble Lord. Sport is incredibly important to each and every one of us—in different ways with different sports—but we need to make sure that delivery of both funding and our commitment to sport is based on the sport and people’s engagement with it.