I have not had any direct contacts with the Interational Olympic Committee regarding the drug testing of professional athletes. However, I attended the Olympic Council of Ireland's Seminar on Sport against Drugs in November 1998 at which many leading experts in the field of drug taking in sport, including IOC representatives, were present. At the conference I outlined my strong views on the issue of doping in sport and gave details of the Governments National Sports Anti-Doping Programme.
Minister of State at my Department Deputy Flood, recently attended, on my behalf, an informal meeting of European Union Sports Ministers in Bonn to discuss doping in sport. The meeting was specifically called to prepare for the International Olympic Committee World Conference on Doping in Sport which took place in Lausanne from 2-4 February 1998. The Ministers agreed to set up an EU working group of officials to improve the co-ordination of existing national measures and the EU approach on the subject of doping in sport. It was also agreed that a unified approach to tackling the doping issue would be presented by EU Government representatives at the IOC Conference in Lausanne.