Editorial: The suggestion that money was no object helped create a situation in which the costs of Casement have soared to £300 million

The Alliance Party leader said yesterday that the new stadium at Casement Park "needs to be built" and "should be supported as other stadia were".

Naomi Long was speaking fresh from her party conference on Saturday, and as news emerged that the stadium could cost £300 million.

Ms Long told BBC’s Sunday Politics: "I believe it needs to be built. I believe that some of the opposition to it, I think, smacks of sectarianism in many cases.”

She said she would have preferred a national stadium built on the site of the former Maze Prison for football, rugby and GAA. And she said: "We have to do our due diligence, we have to deliver on time and we have to deliver on budget … but there's no reason why Casement should see any less support than the other stadiums did."

It is worth repeating her points at length because such points are often made. It is fair to say that there should have been a single stadium – many Northern Ireland fans in the west of the province backed the Maze. A single stadium should have been considered in Belfast too.

And of course Casement should get the same as the other stadiums. Its share of £62 million assessed a year ago is £90 million in today’s money. But now the overall cost might be an outrageous £300 million.

It is quite wrong to talk about sectarianism around this project. In fact there has been remarkably little criticism of, for example, the IFA giving it so much support or of Chris Heaton-Harris’s foolish pledge that they would find the money no matter what. But these sorts of things helped create a situation in which the GAA thought it could pay nothing more and perhaps made potential builders think cash was no object.

Mr Heaton-Harris is now making clear there is no blank cheque. It will be sad not to see the Euros in NI, but if they don’t come there are many reasons why not.