Delay in publishing report on drug-testing in the greyhound industry

Minister for Sport John O'Donoghue will not publish the report on drug-testing in the greyhound industry until he has finished consultations with the Office of the Attorney General and brought the matter to Cabinet.

Mr O'Donoghue said he would hold to his promise that "everybody involved in this matter will receive due process". The report by former secretary of the Department of Justice Tim Dalton would, however, be "published at the earliest date available" after consultations were completed and the Cabinet briefed.

The Minister received the document on April 5th, two months after he commissioned Mr Dalton to investigate issues of corporate management in Bord na gCon and the "management of positive tests for banned substances".

The investigation followed a dispute at Bord na gCon over the sacking of its chief executive Aidan Tynan, who had previously revealed unpublished details of a drug-testing hearing to the Minister. Bord na gCon and its chairman Paschal Taggart repeatedly insisted that Mr Tynan's sacking followed ongoing difficulties between him and the board, and not because he revealed details of the hearing.

Opposition deputies pressed the Minister to reveal the contents of the report and Fine Gael's spokesman Jimmy Deenihan said leaks to newspapers suggested the inquiry recommended that responsibility for doping should be transferred from Bord na gCon to an independent agency. Mr Deenihan said that a Bill he introduced some time ago would have dealt with the problem and he asked the Minister to consider accepting the legislation if he introduced it again.

He said that the Minister should publish the report quickly because of major uncertainty in a "really flourishing industry"

Labour's sport spokesman Brian O'Shea asked if the report dealt with the €20,000 cost to employ a public relations consultant to assist with a press conference at Shelbourne Park in early February, after the investigation had begun.

Mr O'Donoghue said that all issues in the report would be dealt with and debated.