Sports Council says lack of funds limits the extent of drugs testing

CASH-STRAPPED sports chiefs have no plans for a drugs testing blitz here but say they are targeting tests more precisely to pick out cheats when they are most likely to be in breach of doping rules.

In the four full years since the Irish Sports Council took over the national drugs test programme, the number of tests carried out per year has risen only modestly from 621 in 2000 to 774 last year.

In the same period, the variety of sports in which tests were conducted rose from 21 to 36. But a total of 54 sports have signed up to the anti-doping programme which means some minority sports have not yet had any representative tested or can expect testing only on alternative years or less often.

“We would like to increase testing but the harsh truth is that budgets and manpower don’t stretch as far as we might like,” a spokeswoman said yesterday. “If we had a huge budget, then you would see more tests. There has been an increase in the last few years but it won’t increase dramatically in the coming years.”

Testing, which costs the Sports Council around half a million euro annually, is contracted out to Swedish company IDTM (International Doping Tests & Management) which operates in 80 countries and has 16 doping control officers working in Ireland.

The Sports Council spokeswoman insisted, however, that merely increasing the number of tests would not necessarily lead to tighter drugs controls.

“It’s more about how you prioritise the various sports and target events and testing times. We have increased the proportion of tests that take place out of competition, which is a key strategy.”

The Council does, however, have a stated aim of extending testing. “We haven’t tested anyone in road bowling, for example, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be tested,” the spokeswoman said.

The Council’s chief executive, John Treacy, has also said in the past that he wanted to see testing extended to the likes of club level players in the GAA where tests are currently carried out on senior players at inter-county, league and championship level.

That proposal does not present any budgetary problems for the Council at the moment as the GAA, which belatedly came around to the idea of out-of-competition testing in June this year, will not agree to it.

“We don’t envisage permitting its extension. We wouldn’t see any reason for it,” said GAA legal affairs manager and anti-doping committee member, Ciarán O’Neill.

The IRFU, which permits testing at all levels of the sport, is one of the few bodies making use of the user-pays option, where they pay the Sports Council to carry out tests additional to those conducted under the State-funded national programme.

Last year 57 rugby players were tested under the national programme and 56 under the user-pays scheme. Spokesman John Redmond denied this was due to insufficient testing by the Sports Council. “It’s just an illustration of how conscientious the IRFU are on this issue,” he said.

The Sports Council’s arrangement with the FAI covers premier and first division league players and the senior international team, and doping control officer, Paul Brady, said the association would have no difficulty extending it further.

“It would depend on what the Sports Council want to do. Soccer doesn’t have the same problem with drugs that other sports do and educating players can be as important as policing them so we’re very active on that front.”