Editorial: NI Secretary has been right about Stormont's spendthrift culture yet fails to criticise outrageous cost of Casement Park

​The amount of public money being allocated to Casement Park in west Belfast would be a scandal at any time. The estimated cost of the redevelopment of the GAA stadium is now a staggering £170 million. But for this to be paid a time of crisis in funding for public services is all the more outrageous.

Yet what did the secretary of state for Northern Ireland say, when asked by the BBC back in May about where the money be coming from amidst severe financial constraints on government spending?

"We'll get the money, don't you worry," was the reply of Chris Heaton-Harris MP.

It is worth recapping on the political journey of Mr Heaton-Harris. A seemingly fearsome Brexiteer, he and Steve Baker arrived in the Northern Ireland Office to uproar from nationalist and centrist politicians.

Almost as if to please such a chorus of denunciation, they have not only embraced the Irish Sea border that nationalist Ireland has been so determined to enshrine, but scolded unionist opposition to it, and put open pressure on the DUP to return to Stormont, despite the fact that it is a barrier to trade within the UK.

Mr Heaton-Harris has given every impression of saying the sorts of things that the NIO culture would want incumbent secretaries of state to say and do, which includes never saying or doing anything that might upset nationalist Ireland. Is this why amid the soaring costs of Casement the wealthy GAA is not being asked to contribute to these disgraceful sums of money?

As it happens one thing that Mr Heaton-Harris has been right to do when in office is criticise the spendthrift culture at Stormont that has cut across all the main political parties. But his carefree approach to the funding of Casement makes a mockery of his strictures.