Michael Comiskey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. Will he outline the action that is being taken to prevent the use of performance enhancing drugs in greyhound racing? What measures will be put in place to implement regulatory controls in that regard? The recent Indecon report highlighted many problems with governance and financial issues in the Irish Greyhound Board, IGB. However, the greatest flaw highlighted was that of the prevalence of positive drug tests in racing greyhounds.

The use of drugs in any sport brings the reputation of the game into disrepute. It is vital that this issue be dealt with in order to restore confidence in greyhound racing, given its importance to Ireland as an industry. The IGB employs 10,000 people and provides indirect employment for thousands more. There are 17 greyhound tracks across the country and more than 26,000 people go racing every week. It is important that the integrity of the industry be upheld.

The Indecon report recommends that rigorous procedures and processes for regulatory control must be implemented. The current legislation and regulations on the provision of integrity services are not good enough. When will more stringent legislation be in place? Indecon's analysis of the divergence between the number of positive tests and adverse findings has shown that this situation was in part due to previous decisions of the control committee, which ruled to dismiss a significant number of positive tests on the basis that, in its opinion, certain internal laboratory protocols concerning storage and temperature were not reflected in the handling of test samples before they reached the laboratory and that there were deficiencies in respect of the samples. Undoubtedly, this has had a negative effect on the perception of the industry. This practice had to be stopped. All processes in the testing of banned substances need to be transparent. We need to determine whether better testing facilities are available, results need to be publicised and greater penalties need to be imposed. Only then can we restore credibility to the greyhound industry. Will the Minister of State outline what he will do about this situation and how soon can we see the Indecon report's recommendations put in place?