Mr. Denis Egan:

I thank Deputy Kehoe. The first question was on information coming into the IHRB and not being acted upon. I can categorically state if information comes into the IHRB, it is assessed and followed up on. We have no reason not to follow up information if it comes in to us. Dr. Hillyer referred to the structure that is in place. I am going to talk about another issue for a second, where we got information recently and it lead to a matter being investigated and dealt with by the referrals committee. We got information from a third party. All information is assessed and followed up so if people have information, it is, as I have said before on many occasions, incumbent on them to give us that information and we will act on it. It will be assessed, fed into our database or whatever and acted upon. That is the way we operate.

The second question related to the accounts and anti-doping. There was a transfer from our original laboratory back in 2018 to LGC. LGC was appointed as part of the public procurement process and we felt that as Ireland was a world leader in horse racing we needed a laboratory which was a world leader. In order to terminate the existing contractual relationship that was in place at the time, we entered into a mediation process which resulted in a figure being paid. That was included in the 2018 accounts, which is why there appears to have been a reduction between 2018 and 2019. On the number of racecourse samples that are taken, as Dr. Hillyer said earlier that is related to the number of winners and we also test other horses randomly. Again, Dr. Hillyer is the expert on that and I would like her to comment on that specific point because it is her area.