Failure to agree a plan for the former Maze prison site is jeopardising future development opportunities in Northern Ireland, Secretary of State Shaun Woodward warned today.
The Stormont Executive is split on plans to build a multi sports stadium at the Maze, with unionists opposed to a museum on the same site commemorating the jail’s H-blocks.
But Mr Woodward warned that the deadlock meant it was becoming impossible for him to ask the British government to hand over disused army bases in Northern Ireland.
Mr Woodward today said it was difficult for him to argue for old military sites, such as land in Omagh which is earmarked for a possible school development, to be handed over.
“The point I was making is that if I am being asked to go to the Treasury to say, will you give me the site at Omagh, which is worth well is excess of 100 million pounds . . . that is tax payers’ money.
“If I’m going to do that then I need to demonstrate that this is value for money.
“It does therefore trouble those who look at this and see that there is still no satisfactory resolution on what will happen at the Maze,” he added.
PA