The Minister for Sport, Tourism and Recreation has been criticised for being "two years in office" without a programme of sanctions or penalties against athletes who use illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
The criticism came from the Fine Gael spokesman on sport, Mr Bernard Allen, who said Dr McDaid was not being credible in talking of "criminalising drug-taking in sports . . . without even getting the basics right". Mr Allen asked if there would be any drug-testing undertaken this year, and whether money allocated for the service would be spent.
Dr McDaid said he had so far received some 35 responses out of 75 requested from sports governing bodies on the issue. He said he wanted to get agreement on penalties if they were to be of a severe nature.
The Minister added that there would be over 600 tests next year and it would only be when the Department looked at the results of these tests that the scope of the problem would become known.