Minister of State for Sport Charlie McConalogue has said "the ball is very much in the court" of Katie Taylor and her promoters if they are to seek government support for a potential fight at Croke Park.
On Tuesday, Taylor said her promoter Eddie Hearn and manager Brian Peters had "an amazing meeting" with stadium officials earlier this month, describing the talks as "very positive"
For Taylor, it's "Croke Park or nowhere" as she looks to fulfil a long-held ambition of walking out at the stadium.
On Wednesday Minister McConalogue revealed there has been no significant update on the situation, and stressed "the ball is very much in the court of Katie and her promoters".
"There's been no change from a government point of view," he told RTÉ Sport.
"I'd certainly love to see Katie fight in Ireland to finish out her career. I know from what she said publicly that her team are certainly working on that. I think that she has wonderful respect from everyone in this country. She's one of our finest ever athletes and I think the country would love to see her fight domestically over the course of this year as well.
"From a government point of view, we haven't received any specific proposal seeking support for a fight. We have a very clear system for assessing any asks that we would receive along the lines (of a) major national events strategy, and it would be assessed against that benchmark should we receive a request.
"But listen, the ball is very much in the court of Katie and her promoters to step out any potential fight. They're very open to engaging with the government and we would certainly assess it against our normal benchmarks should we receive a request."
Asked if he would have expected a proposal from Taylor's team by now, the Minister replied: "Not necessarily. We have many great events every year in the country, sporting events. The organisation of a fight for Katie - as has always been the case before - is a matter for her promoters and her team to organise.
"We have a clear strategy and benchmark by which we assess any approaches we get for taxpayer contribution towards events and that's our national major event strategy.
"Should we receive a proposal to support an event, we would assess it against that standard lines as we do for any proposal we'd receive because of course when it comes to taxpayers' money, there has to be a strong rationale for contributing to any event.
"As with any proposal we've received before, we would assess it, should we receive it from Katie's team, in that light as well."
Minister McConalogue expanded on the necessary criteria for government support, adding: "The key benchmark would be in terms of economic return. Obviously for investing taxpayers' money we have to be very careful about how we do that and it's open to any major sporting event to approach the government with a proposal.
"We have a very clear criteria by which we assess that and ultimately, does this merit taxpayers' money investment? Would it have a return to the public and to the economy as a result of that?
"Should we receive a proposal from Katie's team we would assess it against that criteria."
