Nelson McCausland adjourns the meeting.

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Oliver McMullan of Sinn Fein asks if the phrase "Hillsborough-type disaster" was ever mentioned in the early planning stages.

Basil McCrea interjects and says it is "appalling" that just because this phrase was not mentioned that it should not have been in "every person's mind".

Basil McCrea of NI21 raises questions over emergency evacuation time calculations.

He reads from a document which has considered the possibility of certain exits being unavailable at the stadium.

"There is not a cat in hell's chance of you getting 38,000 people out of that stadium if the Andersonstown Road entrances and exits are not available," he says.

"It is not possible."

Mr Miskelly says Mr McCrea is reading from a "working document responding to a what-if scenario".

"We haven't concluded that piece of work," he adds.

Gordon Dunne of the DUP says he is disappointed at how little Mr Miskelly has mentioned the Safety Technical Group.

"All you have tried to do is rebuff any evidence they've given us but you haven't given us any assurance of their engagement," he says.

"I find it most disappointing how the STG has been treated in this whole project."

Ulster Unionist Leslie Cree reads from Sport NI technical discussion notes on the 12 December 2014.

He says that when concerns were raised regarding emergency exiting, it was noted that Mr Miskelly "argued" these "could be dealt with in construction".

In response, Mr Miskelly says he does not agree with the use of the word argue.

Throughout today's witness sessions references have been made to the "green guide", which lays down stadium safety requirements in Northern Ireland, and the "red guide" which operates in the rest of the UK.

DCAL architectural programme advisor Andrew Dadley says that in the case of the Casement contract it was agreed that specifications from the red or the green guide would be used whatever standards "were the highest".

Rory Miskelly, DCAL stadium programme director, outlines some of the technical aspects of the stadium development.

Two Culture Department officials, Rory Miskelly and Andrew Dadley are the next witnesses.

"Some of us might as well say that it looks as though the top level of the department was asleep at the wheel," Mr McCausland comments.

"I would disagree with that," Mr May says.

Nelson McCausland picks up on Gordon Dunne's point about the danger that build capacity would exceed safety capacity.

"I think in my view it was something that needed to be resolved before we got to that stage," Mr May replies.

The SDLP's Dominic Bradley outlines the two themes he feels have emerged from today's session.

"One of them is this has all been blown out of proportion and the safety issues would have been picked up further down the track," he says.

The other is of failings which should have been addressed and which "could have led to major consequences".

Mr McCrea refers to an email sent to Mr May by Antoinette McKeown of Sport NI (which was brought up by Nick Harkness of Sport NI in the previous evidence session this morning) raising issues of safety at Casement Park.

Mr May says that "any normal reading" of the email is that "it is not saying this is the showstopper".

NI21's Basil McCrea asks Mr May: "Does the department approve the design to go forward for planning?".

"We certainly approve the application for planning," Mr May replies.

The DUP's Gordon Dunne asks Mr May if there was a danger that the building could have been well underway with a 38,000 capacity and no safety certificate.

Mr May says that part of the funding agreement with the GAA was that "all statutory issues needed to have been met, so we needed to have a realistic expectation we would be able to achieve the certificate in order to proceed".

Rosie McCorley asks whether emergency exiting would have also been seen as an "issue of concern" at the two other stadium developments at Windsor and the Ravenhill rugby ground.

Mr May recalls that Ulster Rugby wanted to host the quarter-final of the European Cup - "the key issue was whether it would be possible to secure a suitable safety certificate in time".

"Obviously that was successfully achieved," he adds.

Mr McCausland asks Mr May whether nobody at all in DCAL "thought there was an issue in going forward for planning permission" when it had been "flagged up" that it might not get a safety certificate.

"I was not clear that that it would not have secured a safety certificate for 38,000 at the time that planning was submitted," he replies.

Nelson McCausland asks whether the minister and her special adviser were kept informed of issues of "potential difficulties that there would be where it could end up with a stadium with a build capacity that was much in excess of the safety capacity".

"Probably not in those terms," Mr May replies.

"I could not sanction a situation in which to go ahead to build a stadium with a capacity beyond which it is likely to secure a safety certificate," he adds.

In reply to a question from Nelson McCausland, Mr May says that when he came to work at DCAL the issue of emergency exiting at Casement "was seen very much as something that needed to be done but was not seen as a potential obstacle to the achievement of the programme".

Mr May says he understands there is an emphasis on emergency exiting plans but stresses "there were a wide range of issues facing this programme".

"Safety was an essential part of the programme," he says.