St.Conleth's park renovation in serious jeopardy for Kildare

The re-development of St Conleth's Park in Newbridge, set to get under way this summer, now looks like it could be put back, indefinitely.

A statement issued last Friday and signed by Mick Gorman, Chairman Co. Board and Padraig McManus, Chairman of St Conleth's Park Development Committee informed all clubs that with rising inflation, Brexit, Covid, shortage of labour and all other factors that have hit the building industry has led to the original tender price rising by some 30-40 per cent — adding something in the region of between €3m and €4 million.

Needless to say that is €3-€4m that the Co. Board do simply not have.
Add to that the State monies, promised are now being re-examined, along with other major State promised funding to various other infra structural projects.

On top of that the monies expected from both Croke Park and Leinster Council are also slow to materialise — to put it bluntly it would seem neither have excess monies for capital expenditure at the moment.

Put it all together, along with the fact that it is highly probable that the tender process may have to be gone through again, as one expert in the construction industry confirmed this week that at the moment any tender over 60 days is being inflated at around 35 per cent, it is not rocket science to see that as it stands the chances of work commencing on St Conleth's Park this summer is certainly out of the question.

When it will commence will depend on the Sports Capital Grant being delivered, along with the GAA grants. But even if all promised grants were approved instantly there will still be a deficit of some €4m.
St Conleth's Park, it seems, is going nowhere fast.