Dogs on speed but accountants not fast-tracking

IF the odds are low at the dog track, it might be ’cos the greyhounds are high on speed.

Not speed in the literal sense, but rather the amphetamine drug, resulting in some four-legged racers going tripping with the hare and getting spaced out with the other hounds.

Last year after-race drug tests by the greyhound racing authority found five dogs had been given amphetamines, a lucid and clear-headed Dáil watchdog heard yesterday.

Testing on greyhounds has increased from 1,000 tests in 2000 to almost 3,500 in 2003, according to Bord na gCon doggy drug-testing tzar Daniel O'Leary.

While there were 79 positive tests, the bulk of these were trivial breaches but five showed positive tests for amphetamines commonly called 'speed'.

The drug-pushing owners had race winnings confiscated and were fined an average of €900, with one culprit receiving a €1,900 fine, Mr O'Leary, the Bord na gCon head of regulation, told the Dáil Public Accounts Committee.

Not on speed are the accountants looking into alleged financial impropriety at Shelbourne Park, where an investigation into a generator costing over €100,000 has taken three years and counting.

Keeping ahead of the chasing pack, amid challenges to the organisation's financial management of taxpayers money, was Bord na gCon acting chief executive Michael Foley.

He said that upon legal advice from the authority's solicitors, Holmes O'Malley Sexton, top accountancy firm Price Waterhouse Coopers was called in to see how the generator was charged in the books.

The investigation apparently had to determine if the generator was new or second-hand, but despite commencing in late 2001 or early 2002, a report had still not been completed.

Fast out of the traps, Fianna Fáil TD Batt O'Keeffe said the accountants' inquiry will probably end up costing more than the generator. "We will await this outcome with some interest," he said.

Straining at the leash, Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins said this situation was outrageous

"It beggars belief that a report of an investigation into alleged impropriety involving taxpayers' money three years down the road cannot be revealed.

"I am not going to sit here all day as if I was chasing a hare around one of your tracks," he barked.

Gone beyond the days of being given speed are the retired greyhounds which benefit from the bingo sessions at Harolds Cross in Dublin.

The dogs themselves are not taking their chances with the numbers from the slots, rather the €65,000 raised annually goes to a trust fund set up for greyhound welfare.