Source: Irish Independent (Ireland) Contact: http://www.independent.ie/ Copyright: Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd Pubdate: 5 Jan 1998 Author: Eilish O'Regan, Health Correspondent ANOMALIES HOLD UP SPORTS DRUG TESTING PROGRAMME SERIOUS concerns about key aspects of the sports drug-testing programme to be introduced this year remain to be resolved, it emerged yesterday. It is eventually planned to take around 600 tests from amateur and professional sports people annually but the introduction of the programme is now likely to be delayed. A spokesperson for Sports Minister Jim McDaid said yesterday it could not be introduced until the Sports Council was established on a statutory basis and the bill allowing for this has yet to go through its second stage in the Dail. However, Pat Daly, coaching and games development manager of the GAA, revealed it was not yet clear if it would be left to each sporting body to decide on the severity of the penalty should one of its members be found guilty. He warned this could create anomalies, with athletes convicted of the same offence getting different penalties. ``It must be fair and consistent,'' he said. Difficulties may also arise for organisations which cover both the Republic and the North because of differences in drug testing programmes and agreement must also be reached on how the various banned substances will be categorised. Mr Daly said the GAA was also concerned about potential loopholes which would allow somebody banned from one sport to participate in another. The Department of Sport said the programme would be phased in and it was planned to first target the 178 sports people in receipt of government funding as well as bodies with teams participating at national and international level. Invitations to tender for the provision of laboratory testing facilities are being sent abroad and this process is expected to be completed shortly. ``We appreciate it is an evolving situation and there are different issues to be looked at. We would like to see the testing introduced sooner rather than later to stand over the integrity of our members,'' said Mr Daly. Organisations which fail to participate in the testing programme will not be given any State funding. Each is obliged to change its constitution to allow testing to take place but none has registered with the department yet. The ministerial spokesperson said the Sports Council was setting out guidelines on the programme for the various organisations. - --- MAP posted-by: Mike Gogulski