The GAA has admitted that it cannot be certain whether or not there is a problem of drug misuse in football and hurling. But the association reiterated its position on the matter in the light of the difficulties which are emerging in relation to rugby in Ireland.
"If you ask me: Is there a drug abuse problem in Gaelic games?" says Pat Daly, secretary of the GAA's medical work group, "I can't tell you. In the absence of testing, we can't have an accurate picture of the problem, its extent if it exists."
The association's medical work group, under the chair of Professor Padraig Keane of the University Hospital Galway, reported 18 months ago on the issue and its report was ratified by the GAA's Central Council. It consulted frequently with Michael Turner, the British expert on drug-abuse in sport who advises, among others, the Lawn Tennis Association and the Jockey Club.
"We're in no-man's-land on this," according to Pat Daly. "Not because we don't want to administer drug tests but because we are waiting for the Minister for Sport to implement his Department's drug-testing proposals. It's important that we have the same system as exists in the north where the Northern Ireland Sports Council conduct tests.
"It's also important that separate sports don't have different standards. You can't have one giving out a slap on the hand and another twoyear bans.
"Any sport which has jumped into this has got its fingers burned with the amount of litigation that has cropped up, so we must be careful."
Ulster GAA players have been tested by the NI Sports Council, but this doesn't amount to much more than around six a year.
"A testing procedure has to conform to international standards as administered and as conducted in the laboratory. The work group has recommended the institution of a discipline system and a penalty system according to the classification of the drug detected."
The system would require new committees within the GAA as the task of enforcing the regulations is a highly specialised one. In the words of one jaundiced observer: "If you went into Central Council talking about EPO, they'd think you were saying GPO and they'd start discussing 1916".
Not alone would a sports association like the GAA have to set up a committee of inquiry but it would also have to provide a tribunal of appeal. Consequently, the GAA hope is that the Government will establish its testing procedures across the board and take the matter out of the hands of individual associations.
Pat Daly says the GAA would prefer this course of action. "Asking sports to deal with their offenders in isolation can set up a conflict of interest. It's a bit like a judge finding you guilty of drink-driving and telling you to go off and impose a suspension on yourself."
In the absence of a government-run process, Daly rejects the notion that the GAA should take the lead and start organising its own drug-testing procedures.
"I don't think there would be the desirable level of transparency if an in-house option was adopted. I think the difficulties facing the IRFU are a symptom of that. It should be taken out of the hands of sports associations. At the moment the Government are working on implementing a testing programme and we'll wait and see those proposals."
In any event, Daly feels that football and hurling aren't obvious sports for drug-abuse, even though he accepts that the problem may well already exist.
"They're not explosive sports so the level of anaerobic endurance isn't as high as the aerobic. I'm sure a player could improve his stamina but the sports are fairly skill-orientated and demand a consistently high level of player interaction."
