By Shane Stokes
Sport Ireland chief executive, Una May, has elaborated on details around the first ever world class velodrome here, providing a timeframe for when it should be completed and voicing confidence that all the necessary funding will materialise.
“We expect it’ll take a couple of years. It’s a massive project,” May told stickybottle. “So it will probably take a couple of years from when we start digging. It is certainly likely to be 2025 when we are finished…maybe a bit less, but it’s a very big project. We hope the digging will start in early autumn, if not earlier.”
To date Ireland has had to make do with outdoor velodromes over the years, including Sundrive Road in Crumlin, Kanturk in Cork and Orangefield in Belfast. The lack of an indoor venue has required riders to spend periods of time training in places such as Mallorca, adding considerably to Cycling Ireland’s costs.
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Notwithstanding that barrier, the country has achieved considerable success on the track. Martyn Irvine’s world title in 2013 is the top example, but so too the strong results of the current track squad, plus Ireland’s medal-winning Paralympic riders such as Kate-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal, and Ronan Grimes.
That success added impetus to the push for a velodrome and, years after government parties committed to building one, things are now gathering some momentum.
“It’s great news that we have got to this point,” May said, referring to last week’s official granting of planning permission. “Everyone pre-empted this, to be honest (saying permission had already been given – ed). What had been given is what is called a decision to grant, but there’s still time for four weeks for appeals before planning permission is actually granted. There were no appeals and so now we have got the formal word on it.”
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She said that Sport Ireland was very pleased with the outcome. “It’s great news we have got this far. It’s been a very, very long and painful process, but we’re there,” she stated.
“We have the planning permission. Now we have to get to the detailed design stage and bringing the track designers and all the rest into the mix.
"It becomes a complex design project now. We have the broad designs already in place, but the interior designs, like the around-the-track design, start to kick in.”
Cycling Ireland will share the new facility with Badminton Ireland. Aside from a 250 metre velodrome, the building will also host 12 badminton courts. There will also be a café, changing rooms, offices and bicycle hire and storage areas.
The velodrome will have approximately 1,000 permanent seats, plus the capacity to add a further 2,500 temporary seats when required.
The plans will be hugely beneficial for the sport. But, given how long Ireland has waited for a velodrome, some may be reluctant to celebrate just yet. How certain is it that he funding will be there?
“Well, we’ve been assured that we’ll have what we need when we need it,” May said. “We have a very significant support behind this project.
“The Taoiseach is behind it, everyone’s behind this project. So we’re confident we’ll have it when we need it. That’s a given for us.”
