Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I remind the Minister that Ireland's so-called global leadership in equine matters will be severely challenged unless we address the use of drugs and employment rights - or lack thereof - in the horse racing industry.

Contrary to the Minister's assertion, many of the policies are heavy on spin and fairly slight on substance. Unlike human sporting activities where athletes can be selected for testing at any time or any place, drug testing protocols in horse racing are not random in many instances. If the horse is not at a licensed race course or the trainer's yard, in other words, back on the owner's premises, the regulatory authority here, the Turf Club, must give the owner five working days' notice, not including Saturday or Sunday, of its intention to test the horse. In other words, a race horse that could be full to the brim of performance enhancing drugs would have the whole week to be detoxed before an examination. I refer to regulation No. 7 of the rules of racing. That is a fact. It is there in the Department's own rules that they have to give the owner that notice.

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