Sport Ireland CEO: 'We have no anti-doping jurisdiction over Irish schools' rugby'

NO JURISDICTION: Sport Ireland CEO Dr Una May, widely regarded as a world-leader in anti-doping, said they do not test in schools for two reasons. 

SPORT Ireland has clarified that it has no anti-doping jurisdiction over Irish schools’ rugby but has also stressed that its whistleblowing system has not received any intelligence or complaints to indicate that drugs exist within it. 

The possibility that performance enhancers are being used within schools’ rugby has been raised in the media recently but without any evidence and there is currently no way to detect it given that Sport Ireland does not test at this level. 

The youngest level of rugby tested are U18 interprovincial squads (for which all players have to give parental consent) and the provincial academies. Sport Ireland CEO Dr Una May, widely regarded as a world-leader in anti-doping, said they do not test in schools for two reasons. 

She said one was because the body which runs schools rugby is separate from the IRFU and therefore does not come under Sport Ireland’s testing umbrella. The other is for ethical reasons. 

“The world anti-doping code recognises that younger athletes are in a situation where they may be coming under pressure from outside forces which puts them at a higher risk of inadvertent doping,” May said. 

“It’s not our policy to target underage athletes as there are many implications to targeted doping controls at a younger age. Our priority is to ensure we have deterrents and education at those levels.” 

She stressed it is an area that has never been red-flagged by Ireland’s intelligence-led anti-doping system, which includes an ex-Garda who investigates anonymous tip-offs. 

Sport Ireland did speak with the Irish schools’ rugby body over a decade ago, largely for educational reasons when the use of Creatine and other legal but possibly contaminated supplements surged but May said there has been no recent communications between them. 

Asked if Sport Ireland regarded schools’ rugby as a risk area for performance-enhancing drugs Dr May said: “We do recognise that there is talk about the issues that might be out there but we have yet to see any evidence. We have never received any concrete submissions to our ‘report doping’ hotline that would suggest there’s a definite issue there. 

“Sport Ireland doesn’t have jurisdiction over schools rugby, they are not members of the IRFU in the same way as any of the clubs are. We don’t have that natural jurisdiction, so it would require an arrangement to come between the schools rugby association and ourselves. 

"We have always been willing to support that if a request came, in the same way we support many other sports who are willing to come to us to seek those additional tests.” 

Dr May was speaking at the launch of Sport Ireland’s 2024 grant funding for High Performance Sport which is a record € 25 million in this Olympic/Paralympic year, including a record €4.4m in ‘carding’ for individual funding of athletes and teams. 

It marks a substantial €30m increase (to over €89m) for this Olympic cycle, compared to the €59m that the government invested for Tokyo. Last year was the first time that money (€923,500) was specifically ring-fenced to help retain and upskill coaches in the Irish elite system and this has been increased to €1.5m. 

This year €10.8m goes to 19 national governing bodies to run their high-performance systems on the basis that they are winning international medals or qualifying for Olympic/Paralympic Games. That is why Irish basketball is not funded through this system and tennis and clay pigeon shooting, who were previously included, no longer are.

Rowing Ireland (€1.09m), Paralympics Ireland (€1m), Irish boxing (€965,000), Athletics (€841,000), Hockey (€856,000), Sailing (€800,000) and Horse Sport Ireland (€803,000) are the highest recipients in this scheme in 2024. 

The €4.4m allocated to ‘carding’ for 2024 supports 123 athletes and teams in 16 sports, with just 33 athletes awarded the top category of ‘podium funding’ (*€40,000) which is reserved for medallists at global and European level. 

Rowers are again the biggest beneficiaries, receiving €863,000, followed by track and field athletes (€645k), cyclists (€455km, primarily to para-cyclists), boxers (€436k), Para-swimming and track (€379k) and swimmers and divers(€322k) Ireland’s elite sports stars won 99 international medals in 2023 (46 senior of which 17 were gold, 11 silver and 18 bronze) and 42% were won by women, 38% by men and 19% in mixed events and Sport Ireland says their increased investment means Ireland is already ahead of their target to win 270 medals over this Olympic cycle.