Mr. Pat Herbert:

The reality is that in the UK there is not a well-established breeding industry. Up to 85% of greyhounds in the UK are of Irish extraction. Only a couple of thousand greyhounds are bred by the UK authorities. The lion’s share of greyhounds in the UK comes from Ireland. Accordingly, any efforts towards doping controls will be largely focused on the main source.

The cost of the new laboratory machine is indicative of the board's commitment to tackling doping and application control. It cost €400,000. We work closely with our counterparts in the Greyhound Board of Great Britain.

We have an explicit set of racing rules, written pursuant to the 1958 Greyhound Industry Act, namely the statutory instrument, Greyhound Industry (Racing) Regulations 2007. We also have regulations relating to the training of greyhounds, the sale of greyhounds and the people who carry out official functions at licensed stadia.

The new laboratory machine is a state-of-the-art triple-quadrupole liquid chromatography machine. It does not measure parts per million but parts per trillion for prohibited substances. It is one of the leading machines in this area and is indicative of where the board wants to go with regulation, medication and doping control.