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Mervyn Storey said that to accede to calls for more public money would open a "Pandora's box" at a time when public funds are scarce, adding that the GAA should "come into the real world" and realise it falls to them to find the cash.

He was speaking amid renewed speculation about the future of the floundering sports project in west Belfast, which has ballooned in cost over the past decade.

It comes after Stormont was resurrected and a new minister took the helm of the Department for Communities, DUP East Antrim MLA Gordon Lyons.

One reason why the clock is ticking on the project is that the new stadium is meant to host five games of the Euro 2028 football tournament – but right now the site lies in ruins.

On Tuesday, Mr Lyons would not comment on rumours that the cost of the stadium project now tops £200m (with the GAA committed only to finding £15m).

But he indicated that if he were to stump up extra funding for the GAA project, a commensurate amount should go towards football too.

More from this reporter:

THIRTEEN YEARS AND COUNTING:

The whole story dates back to 2011, when the NI government announced it would give case to three major sporting outfits: £61.4m to the IFA, £61.4m to the GAA, and £15m to the IRFU.

This money was to be used for stadium re-building.

In the case of the IRFU, all the £15m went on Ravenhill Stadium, upping its capacity from 12,000 to 18,000.

In the case of the IFA, £25.2m of the £61.4m went on revamping the dilapidated Windsor Park, taking it from roughly 14,000 to 18,500 – with the IFA being left to find an additional £4m for the project on top of the £25.2m-worth of government cash.

(The remainder of the IFA's £61.4m funding went on revamping other Irish League football grounds.)

But in the case of the GAA, all £61.4m was earmarked for revamping the crumbling and almost-entirely terraced Casement Park, taking it from 32,000 capacity to a 40,000 all-seater – and this development has never happened.

Mr Storey said: "Everybody has to be realistic.

"Casement has been problematic, and I think it comes down to this insistence that it has to be a certain size: that has been the albatross around their neck.

"That's exacerbated the problem down the years, and while that's been going on the price has been rising and rising."

This is a reference to the many objections lodged by Falls Road residents to the sheer size of the new planned stadium.

‘SDLP AND SF COULDN’T DELIVER THIS’

So should Mr Lyons stick firmly to the original £61.4m figure originally promised?

"I think that's a fair and sensible way, because he's going to open up a Pandora's Box in relation to the other component parts of the arrangement, which are rugby and football.

"They are going to be saying: 'hold on - the deal was the deal!'

"The agreement is the agreement. It's up to the GAA – and they're a very professional organisation – to be able to find a way whereby they can make good the shortfall."

He added: "It's a contentious issue in a sense, and will be perceived to be that bit more contentious because the portfolio is help by a DUP minister.

"But remember: an SDLP minister couldn't deliver the project, and a Sinn Fein minister couldn't! I don't think it should come down to a 'them' or 'us' situation.

"I think [the GAA] are going to have to come into the real world.

"We've all the problems this new executive are facing and it'd be nigh-impossible for any minister – whoever that minister may be – to be able to justify spending an additional £100m-plus just to facilitate one sporting organisation, whoever that may be."

'GAA need to come into real world': Former DUP communities minister urges his successor Gordon Lyons not to dig deeper into public purse to 'bail out' Casement Park stadium project

THIRTEEN YEARS AND COUNTING:

‘SDLP AND SF COULDN’T DELIVER THIS’