Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 30: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the support his Department is giving to the national anti-doping agency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10821/08]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland's national anti-doping programme is administered by the Irish Sports Council (ISC), which is the statutory body responsible for the promotion and development of sport in Ireland. My Department funds the ISC on an annual basis and has allocated over €57 million to the Council in 2008. This includes funding to enable the ISC to meet its statutory function to combat doping in sport. In supporting sport the Government insists that it must be based on fair and ethical principles. The ISC has put in place a comprehensive and effective Anti-Doping Programme, one that the Government strongly endorses and which is recognised internationally as an outstanding model of its type.