Ulster GAA has re-affirmed its commitment to building a 34,500 stadium at Casement Park in the wake of the British government's insistence that it was not in a position to make a financial contribution to the project.
At Tuesday's meeting of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee in Westminster, secretary of state Hilary Benn said he was "not in a position at this stage to say the UK government would make a contribution."
However, he added "I think in the interests of respecting all of the sporting traditions in Northern Ireland, it is important that Casement Park is built."
In a statement released this afternoon, Ulster GAA welcomed Mr Benn's comments on the importance of the project and stressed that the cost of building a provincial stadium would be lower than that required to build a stadium in line with UEFA specifications.
'Ulster GAA's full focus is on the delivery of its approved plans for the 34,500 capacity provincial stadium at Casement Park, which will host Ulster finals and major GAA games," the statement read.
"The costs of Ulster GAA’s provincial stadium will be significantly lower than the costs required to build a stadium to UEFA specification. We recognise the pressures that there are within public finances, and we will continue to work with the Department for Communities and all partners to ensure our provincial stadium is delivered in an efficient way.
"We welcome the comments by the Secretary of State, yesterday, about the importance of Casement Park being built and we await his response to a request for an urgent meeting. We look forward to discussing the project plans with him and commitments given by him, and his predecessor, on the delivery of our provincial stadium.
"We once again call on the British Government, the Minister for Communities and the NI Executive to work with Ulster GAA to finally deliver on commitments first given to us over 13 years ago, and within successive Programmes of Government, to deliver upon our strategic stadium need."
In September, the UK government torpedoed hopes that the currently derelict west Belfast venue would host games in Euro 2028 when it announced that it would not bridge a funding gap to deliver the redevelopment in time.
It said the risk to the public purse of missing the tournament deadline was too high.
The British government also expressed concerns about how the cost of the project had potentially risen to more than £400m (€478m).
The Stormont Executive had committed to redevelop Casement Park in 2011 as part of a stadium strategy that delivered revamps for football's Windsor Park and the rugby ground at Ravenhill.
While the two other Belfast-based projects went ahead, the redevelopment of Casement then was delayed because of legal challenges by local residents.
Then, the Stormont Executive committed £62.5m (€74.7m) to the Casement project.
The GAA has pledged to contribute £15m (€17.9).
The Irish Government has offered roughly €50m towards the project and said this funding remains in place even without the stadium being built for the Euros.
