REVISION OF THE IRISH ANTI-DOPING RULES
With all the fantastic sporting events that are happening at the moment, sports enthusiasts may be interested to know about the Irish Sports Council’s (ISC) Anti-Doping rules.
Key provisions of the revised Rules include:
- Any athlete listed in the ISC’s Registered Testing Pool is obliged to provide details of their whereabouts, which involves giving a 60 minute slot every day between the hours of 6am and 11pm when they will be available at a specified location for testing.
- Personal data collected in Ireland under the Rules may be passed on to the International Federations and sports governing bodies in other jurisdictions.
- If the ISC receives a query from an International Federation or governing body as to whether an athlete has a pending “Atypical Finding”, the ISC may disclose this information. Under the Rules an Atypical Finding is the first step in the testing procedure, and could potentially be found to be as a result of a legitimate therapeutic use or a mistake by the laboratory, as opposed to any breach of the Rules by the sportsperson.
- Where a violation of the Rules is found to have occurred, the details of the violation are to be displayed on the website of the ISC for at least a year.
- The revised Rules do not preclude the use of financial sanctions against those found to be in breach of the Rules, in addition to any other sanctions imposed.
- On the other hand, the revised Rules allow for lesser sanctions in cases where the athlete involved can prove there was no intention to enhance performance.
Caroline Crowley, Partner
ccrowley@hayes-solicitors.ie