Mr. Denis Healy:

More than 5,000 samples are taken annually in the greyhound industry, which works out at nearly 5% of dogs competing in races based on a figure of 93,000 race participants. A substantial percentage is being sampled, even if some of those dogs were sampled twice or three times. That is the case. I am not saying we are the best in the world but the number of samples taken for prohibited or controlled and therapeutic substances across all other sports in Ireland is either 968 or 689. That is the figure for the sampling of humans conducted by Sport Ireland in cycling, rugby, GAA, swimming and other sports. We are not the best in the world but we are taking what we believe to be a representative sample. We should bear in mind that some of those samples are taken out of competition, in circumstances where we have intelligence. More of those targeted tests are being done. All dogs in semi-finals and finals are tested and random sampling is done on race nights.

If there is suspicion at the end of a race that a dog has underperformed or overperformed, our control stewards and the racing manager can hold an inquiry, which is done. The instruction to them is that the dog is immediately kennelled and sampled after the race, and the dog's sample is analysed. We have found some substances there. It is a matter of our stewards being alert and trained to do the job, which they are doing. That is where we are on the doping and controls. The integrity of the sport is absolutely paramount. As was alluded to earlier, there are morning and other meetings, Sunday meetings in Mullingar and on Youghal track at night, that are streamed into bookies abroad, for which the Irish Greyhound Board is paid a fee. They are watching us like hawks, absolutely. If they get a sniff that there is a lack of integrity in the Irish greyhound industry, they will pull the plug because they will not be prepared to put up with gambles and that kind of thing.