I thank the Chairman and the committee for the opportunity to speak with them this afternoon. As indicated, I am the director of participation and ethics in Sport Ireland, a role which encompasses anti-doping. I am an independent observer on behalf of the World Anti-Doping Agency, WADA; a former board member of the Association of National Anti-Doping Organisations; and a current member of the Management of Intelligence and Drugs Action in Sport, MIDAS, committee, which examines anti-doping in animal sports. Ireland previously held a position on the WADA foundation board as the EU representative, during which time I acted as an adviser to the then Minister on anti-doping.
Sport Ireland was established under the Sport Ireland Act 2015 and is the single statutory agency responsible for the development of sport in Ireland, including performance, participation, high performance, the National Sports Campus, etc. Under the Sport Ireland Act, Sport Ireland's functions regarding anti-doping include the provision of guidelines and information regarding anti-doping and fair play in general, good conduct and best practice in sport. We also have responsibility to take such action as Sport Ireland considers appropriate, including testing, to combat doping in sport. We are responsible for the provision of education and information to athletes and other people in the field of anti-doping. We are also identified in our capacity as the national anti-doping organisation in Ireland to direct the collection of samples, manage the testing and test results of samples and attend hearings, as required. The significant priority given to anti-doping work by Sport Ireland is recognised through a full section of the Act dedicated to strengthening the anti-doping programme. Sport Ireland has been clearly designated as the national anti-doping organisation in Ireland and the Irish anti-doping rules have been enshrined in this legislation. Data-sharing powers have been enhanced between key State regulatory authorities and other appropriate anti-doping organisations. Sport Ireland collaborates closely with the Institute of National Anti-Doping Organisations, the Health Products Regulatory Authority, the Revenue Commissioners, An Garda Síochána and the Medical Council in the area of information-sharing. Ireland has ratified the Council of Europe's Anti-Doping Convention, the main objective of which is to promote the national and international harmonisation of the measures to be taken against doping. More recently, Ireland also ratified the UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport, which effectively binds the Government to the implementation of a fully functioning national anti-doping programme which complies with all the relevant articles of the WADA code.
WADA was established in 1999 as an international independent agency composed and funded equally by the sports movement and governments of the world. Its key activities include scientific research, education, development of anti-doping capacities, and monitoring of the World Anti-Doping Code and its implementation. The core of any anti-doping programme is the rules under which it operates, and the WADA code serves as the basis for all anti-doping programmes worldwide. Under the definitions of the code, Sport Ireland acts as the national anti-doping organisation for Ireland and is therefore responsible for implementing the requirements of the WADA code and international standards for sport in Ireland. To this end, the Sports Council produced the 2004, 2009 and, most recently, 2015 Irish anti-doping rules, which bring into force the WADA code in Irish sport.
In October 2015, the inaugural meeting of MIDAS took place at the offices of the Irish Turf Club at the Curragh. The symposium was attended by senior level executives from Horse Sport Ireland, the Irish Greyhound Board, the Irish Turf Club and the investigations division of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. I joined this group immediately after the meeting. It was suggested at the meeting that it would be appropriate that I join the group, so I am now part of it. I have seen this as a positive step towards a unified approach in the regulation of doping and medication controls for horse and greyhound sports working with drugs enforcement authorities in Ireland.
A discussion on the undoubted benefits of information-sharing for animal sports investigations was led by the MIDAS group at a special session at the recent Tackling Doping in Sport conference in London, the world's largest independent anti-doping conference, which was attended by representatives of Sport Ireland. During the session, which included presentations by the Irish Greyhound Board, the Turf Club and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, examples of successful prosecutions in the wake of the formation of MIDAS were highlighted.
Strong feedback was provided afterwards to the group that it was a well-received session.
Sport Ireland was asked to provide feedback on the draft general scheme of the greyhound industry Bill 2017. My comments on the draft Bill are to be taken not in the context of greyhound racing on which I declare have no expertise, but in the broader human anti-doping context of our own legislation and advice that I can give on our experiences from human anti-doping.
The following are the key highlighted issues that we felt were relevant in terms of feedback. First and foremost among these is the level of detail in the Act. In our first Act, the Irish Sports Council Act 1999, we had a broad statement that we could take what action we considered appropriate to combat doping in sport, and that was it. That was empowering and allowed us to develop a strong programme, but we felt we needed to strengthen it by recognising the Irish anti-doping rules and the status of Sport Ireland as the national anti-doping organisation. What was important to us was the fact that the Irish anti-doping rules were taken as gospel in relation to anti-doping in Ireland. We ensured that the detail was not in the legislation. We have taken the detail out and placed the operational and procedural information within the Irish anti-doping rules. Incorporating that level of detail creates a risk, in that anti-doping is a fast-moving area. We have experience of where our international colleagues got into trouble in that they have not been able to update their regulations and legislation quickly enough to deal with changes in circumstances internationally.
Strict liability is another area on which we rely heavily. Basically, the presence of a substance is an offence and there is no room for manoeuvre around that. Therefore, the sanction on an athlete is based on the presence of that substance. There is a potential opportunity for the athlete to reduce the sanction in various circumstances but, ultimately, the sanction is based on strict liability and there is no moving from that. It makes it much more straightforward and much more easily enforced.
In regard to the racing sanctions, although there is a section around racing sanctions, our recommendation would be that it would be more straightforward if, within secondary legislation, there was clearer information as what offence would relate to what level of sanction, so that there is less room for manoeuvre for a disciplinary panel. This aligns itself with article 16 of the world anti-doping code. Although the vast majority of the code has been developed as a set of harmonised regulations around anti-doping in humans, there is an article entitled, Doping Control For Animals Competing in Sport. The article guides the international federations for any sport to develop rules and regulations. Clearly, that is not straightforward in the case of greyhound racing. I am not aware that there is an international federation and that creates some challenges. We would recommend that the Act would align itself with the principles of this article in the code, given that we signed up to the UNESCO convention which obliges us to enforce it. While, strictly speaking, we will not be in a position to enforce it because it is a recommendation for international federations, we would recommend the principles identified in that and best practice would be to consider them in the Act.
Finally, the current draft makes no reference to investigations and intelligence and the potential for information sharing as a result. Certainly, my experience of being on the MIDAS group is that this is an area which has been strong for greyhound racing and the Turf Club in terms of the potential to achieve high success in the area of anti-doping with the co-operation of the various enforcement areas as well as the national governing bodies of sport.
As I outlined previously, Sport Ireland, previously the Irish Sports Council, has extensive experience in the field of human anti-doping, both at a national and international levels. While the subjects of this draft legislation are different from ours, the core principle of protecting the integrity of the activity against the threat of doping are the same. I hope the issues highlighted, both in our submission and in evidence today, will assist with the development of a robust framework which will protect those who participate in greyhound racing in a fair and clean manner.
I thank the Chairman and the committee for giving me the opportunity to appear and I would welcome any questions.
