Taggart defends stand on EPO finding

THE under-fire chairman of Bord na gCon Paschal Taggart openly accepted this weekend that two positive EPO doping findings were not publicised partly because one case involved the top greyhound trainer in the country.

In an extraordinary press conference at Shelbourne Park on Saturday, Mr Taggart defended his handling of the recent controversies over his stewardship of the Irish greyhound industry and lambasted the media for what he described as erroneous and biased reporting.

He said that he had ignored Sports Minister’s John O’Donoghue’s request not to speak publicly because he believed that the independent assessment being carried out by a retired civil servant could not address the allegations made in a “media frenzy” against Bord na gCon. He singled out RTE and the Irish Examiner for particular criticism.

In a highly-orchestrated event to counter the allegations made this week, more than 200 supporters of Mr Taggart arrived at Shelbourne Park and gathered on the dog track while the press conference was taking place inside.

Mr Taggart said he was precluded by a confidentiality clause and by the ongoing inquiry to comment on the sacking of chief executive Aidan Tynan.

He was fired the day after the Sports Minister asked Mr Taggart to respond to a letter from Mr Tynan stating the Bord na gCon chairman had suppressed the publication of the two EPO findings, against board policy.

Mr Taggart said the decision not to publish the names of Paul Hennessy and John Kiely were taken in the interests of the industry. This, he said, was because they were the first ever findings of EPO in the world and that there was a lack of awareness among trainers that EPO was a prohibited substance.

He told the conference that the control committee had also “considered the impact of the disclosure on Mr Hennessy’s reputation in particular.”

Asked if one the reasons the committee decided not to publish names was because of Mr Hennessy status as the top trainer in the country and the damaging effect that would have on the industry, Mr Taggart replied: “Obviously, we were working in the best interests of the industry. We had to take the decision that Paul Hennessy went up there, the biggest trainer in Ireland, we had to take that into account.

“Equally importantly we had to take his future into account. In other words, if we had put that out there, he could have lost all his greyhounds and gone to the European Court and taken us to the cleaners. We are not experts in this area. We are five ordinary people. It’s a tough decision.”

Mr Taggart also said he wanted to correct the impression that Mr Tynan was sacked because of the EPO decision. He said it had no bearing whatsoever on the sacking. He said he went ahead with the conference because the inquiry being conducted by former secretary general of Justice, Tim Dalton, could not address these issues.

“Mr Dalton is incapable of investigating RTE, Charlie Bird and the Irish Examiner. That’s what I am saying. I want to make my (defence) on behalf of the industry. This industry has suffered enormously over the past seven days because RTE wasn’t fair and the Irish Examiner wasn’t fair.

“If you look at the headlines, the reason (Mr Tynan) was sacked was because of the decision on EPO. As far back as October 19, there was a long list of disagreements and strategy (with Mr Tynan). I can’t go into it for legal reasons.”

He did accept that he might have done things differently, but argued that the decision not to publish seemed a reasonable and pragmatic one at the time.