Secretary of State Shaun Woodward said: "At the end of the day, if the national stadium project were to be lost from the Maze it would almost certainly mean that Northern Ireland would lose its opportunity to be one of those centres which will be focused in the Olympics in 2012."

But that is unlikely to save the controversial multi-million project after a further twist to the Maze debate when a top civil servant suggested that the project would be much more affordable if there was a relaxation of planning constraints at the Maze.

 

This could cut public expenditure on the proposed stadium by at least £150 million, the senior civil servant said.

Limitations on the type and scale of building allowed on the 360-acre former prison site near Lisburn has put an effective cap on the amount of money the private sector is willing to invest, according to Leo O'Reilly, who assessed the economic feasibility of the 38,500-seater arena for rugby, football and gaelic games.

O'Reilly, the second Permanent Secretary at the Finance Department, said if the project was given the go-ahead tomorrow the selected developer would contribute £55 million to the stadium cost in return for 300 acres of the remaining land to build on.

However, the official said he would expect that sum to be at least quadrupled if a decision was taken to lift planning restrictions on the site.

O'Reilly said he had never known of a project that had been rejected by the accounting officers at three separate departments to be given the go ahead.

However, he conceded the economic prospects would be greatly boosted if special legislation was brought in that would allow extra builds.

 

Coe, meanwhile, adroitly avoided getting dragged into the row over the Maze when he appeared a special debate in Belfast alongside Mary Peters, the 1972 Olympic pentathlon champion.

 

He said: "I am acutely sensitive having been a Member for Parliament, and a politician that you don't march into someone's back yard and start making policy for people who have got to deliver and clearly this is a domestic issue and it's political and it's sport too.

 

"I think every community should have the best of facilities available to it.

 

"Do I think Northern Ireland and the people, who have sport deep in their DNA, should be given the best opportunity to see and compete in sport in the best surroundings?

 

"I say yes.

 

"That's not as a politician or anyone who has to deliver on it but of course I want to see communities have the best sporting facilities available to them.

 

"I went to the old Salto Gymnastics centre here a while back and Tony Byrne said, 'I'll do a deal with you. '

 

"'You come back with the Olympic Games and I'll have moved this in two years.'

 

"And where am I two years later?

 

"I'm at the Salto Gym in Lisburn with all Tony's aspiring young competitors in what is recognised as a British Centre of Excellence.

 

"That's what winning the bid in Singapore was about.

 

"That's one example in Northern Ireland but all sports should have the best there is to offer."