Mr Allen said the meeting with the education minister and his DUP colleague Gordon Lyons was the first time they had met and he did not think it went “particularly well”.

He explained that the pitch “was only part of the conversation” and many other aspects of the school were discussed.

During the meeting, Mr Allen expressed his ambition to build an indoor dome on the grass pitch.

He said that he wanted to talk to Givan and Lyons about the possibility of linking it with other community programmes.

“It was not to ask them for the funding for that, I want to be absolutely clear on that,” he told the Nolan Show.

Mr Allen added that he did not feel the ministers shared his vision and he came out of the meeting thinking it was a “waste of time”.