A planning application for the National Sports Campus Development in Abbotstown, West Dublin, will be submitted this month to Fingal County Council, Leisure Opportunities has learnt.

The project, led by the National Sports Campus Development Authority (NSCDA), will include a National Field Sports Training Centre for rugby, soccer, Gaelic games and hockey as well as an indoor training centre, which will provide facilities for over 20 national governing bodies of sport. Part of the authority's Development Control Plan is to execute the project in phases starting with the training centres, onsite accommodation for athletes, the sports science and medical centre, sixteen seven-a-side synthetic sports pitches and the completion of work on the new Irish Institute of Sport headquarters. This phase will take place on 205 acres of the 495-acre Abbotstown site and is estimated to cost €119m (£101m, $I50m) (based on a 2004 evaluation).

Proposals for a 200m indoor athletics track with spectator facilities, by the Athletics Ireland, are currently being considered by NSCDA. Séamus Brennan, minister for arts, sport and tourism, has asked for the authority to narrow down options for phase two of the project which is expected to cost €30m (£37.8m,$25.5m) (2004). NSCDA'S project management team includes FaulknerBrown Architects and developer Davis Langdon PKS.

Brennan said: “The construction of the sports campus will offer our major field sports unrivalled facilities and will lift our training and support systems for our elite athletes onto a level that compares favourably with the best international facilities. "The priority is now to make this project happen and to make it happen fast. I have stressed to the NSCDA the major investment the Irish taxpayer is making in this project and of the need to deliver real and tangible results over the next few years.”

The first element of the sports campus, the National Aquatic Centre, has already been completed and is also operated by NSCDA. The rest of the development is expected to be completed by 2012.