IGB rejected positive drug test on backer’s dog

The Irish Greyhound Board (IGB) faced down an internal revolt after quashing a positive drug test on a dog owned by one of the sport’s biggest backers.

The drug test was taken in Mar 2008 by a dog called Low Handicap. The dog was owned by Noreen McManus, wife of financier JP McManus.

Following a protracted inquiry, the IGB said the sample could not be allowed to stand because the container in which it was stored was incorrectly labelled.

However, it has now emerged the same grace was not afforded to at least 14 dogs who also tested positive at the time and had samples wrongly labelled.

In addition, details of internal board discussions have revealed its chairman, Phil Meaney, rejected calls for him to step down because of the IGB’s handling of the case. This call was made because of a perceived lack of co-operation the company gave to the inquiry officer it hired to report on the incident.

During fraught board meetings in 2011 the director who liaised directly with Mr Melville rep-orted on difficulties he had experienced. This director, Danny Reilly, told the IGB Mr Melville felt he had been “obstructed” from an early stage.

He said Mr Melville requested copies of legal advice but was not given it and he was denied access to the audit of the 14 other samples in the batch.

Directors were told Mr Melville “did not get a lot of cooperation from people at every level”.

In a memo, addressed to the follow up meeting in August 2011, Mr Reilly accused the chairman of overstepping his authority and called on him to “consider his position”.

The CEO, Adrian Neilan, rejected any accusation that there was a lack of co-operation and the legal brief Mr Reilly referred was given to the inquiry officer when the request was brought to the board. The samples’ audit was not.

Mr Meaney said since he became chairman in Apr 2011 “there was always full co-operation with Mr Melville”.

The IGB said it would have been “wholly unfair” to pass on the audit of the 14 samples taken between mid 2007 and mid 2008. This was because the IGB was in a difficult legal position.

Ultimately Mr Melville recommended that the other owners, punished at the same time for similar offences, should have their penalties rescinded because of the labelling technicality.

This was never implemented by the board. In a statement it said legal advice it received was that it could not intervene with a decision of the independent control committee. And it could not revoke the other fines.

The McManus family did not respond to requests for comment. The ICC referred all queries to the IGB.