THE FIRST step in implementing the National Anti-Doping Programme of the Irish Sports Council was announced yesterday with the appointment of the leading Swedish firm International

Doping and Test Management (IDTM) as the sample-collecting agency.

IDTM is widely regarded as one of the world's leading testing agencies, responsible for testing in 75 countries with more than 250 certified sampling officers.

IDTM's testing operation in Ireland will be lead by Al and Kay Guy, who have been certified with the agency for the past three years and who carried out the IDTM test on Michelle de Bruin in January of last year. It is hoped to have 15 certified sampling officers in the country by the end of the year.

Most of the international sporting bodies, including the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) and the world swimming body, FINA, have doping control programs carried out by IDTM.

The Sports Council also named the nine members of the new Anti-Doping Committee, which will be headed by Dr Conor O'Brien and includes representatives from the fields of medicine, law, pharmacology and administration.

It will be the end of November before the actual testing begins as the council has yet to finalise the tender with a certified laboratory for analysis and the company to transport the samples. Those agreements are said to be at an advanced stage and are expected to be known within the next month.

The Minister for Sport, Dr Jim McDaid, welcomed the relationship with IDTM who have "vast experience with many national and international sporting bodies." The Minister had been criticised for the long delay in implementing the testing programme, but with an increasing number of legal challenges on the issue of drugs in sport, the programme had to be well-founded and effective.

"We have to be careful to ensure that all the legal and institutional requirements are in place so that the programme is run on a sound legal and administrative basis," he said. "I was also impatient to have the programme commenced, but I wasn't going to be rushed into it."

The Anti-Doping Programme, which has an initial annual budget of £350,000, is expected to start with an average of 600 tests a year. The Sports Council will give details of the programme at a conference on November 15th where all national governing Bodies will be introduced to the operation and procedures of the testing programme. Representatives from IDTM as well as the lab and transport agency will also clarify their role in the programme.

According to John Treacy, the Chief Executive of the Sports Council, the testing will start by targeting the high-performance element of sport. "Almost all the governing bodies have co-operated on this," he said. "And any sport that has signed up means that their athletes are likely to be tested any time and anywhere. The governing bodies will be informed of the guidelines, but they have a responsibility of their own in keeping the athletes informed of the regulations. Various sports have different penalties so it's also up to the governing body to impose the sanctions."

The Gaelic games will be one of the sports that will experience testing for the first time, with inter-county players the main target. Dr O'Brien, the programme chairman and a specialist sports physician at the Blackrock Clinic, has highlighted education as one of the key areas of the programme. "Athletes are risk takers by their very nature," he said, "and educating the abuser or potential abuser is an essential component in any successful drug programme."

The Anti-Doping Committee will also include Dr Brendan Buckley and Dr Derek McGrath as well as Ercus Stewart SC and Michele Veroken, director of the Ethics and Anti-Doping of the UK Sports Council.

Anti-doping committee members

Dr Conor O'Brien - chairman

Sinead Behan - solicitor, Martin A Harvey & Co, Cork, Sports Council member

Dr Brendan Buckley - Cork University Hospital

Prof Denis Cusack - legal medicine, UCD

Peter McLoone - general secretary of IMPACT, Sports Council member

Ann McGee - secretary of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland

Dr Derek McGrath - retired consultant psychiatrist, St Vincent's Hospital)

Ercus Stewart - Senior Counsel

Michele Veroken - director of Anti-Doping, UK Sports Council