Racing: Irish racing is facing anything but a happy New Year with the racecourse doctors decision to withdraw their services from the start of January, Brian O'Connor.

The move is the latest step in an on-going dispute between the Racecourse Medical Officers' Association (RMOA) and the Association of Irish Racecourses (AIR), who pay the doctors to attend race meetings.

A minimum of two doctors have to be on duty at a fixture and their absence would bring the sport in Ireland grinding to a halt, a nightmare scenario that looks more and more likely after a breakdown in negotiations between the two sides last week.

"There are a lot of very angry people about at the approach that has been taken to these negotiations. There has been a distinct element of brinkmanship in this," said the RMOA chairman, Dr David Molony yesterday.

Over the weekend, the RMOA, which has 84 active members, consulted and as a result issued a statement which threatened a withdrawal of medical services from January 1st "due to poorly resourced and inadequate facilities and the non-implementation of a professional agreement between the parties".

Dr Molony insisted yesterday that his association would follow through on their threat and added that the disenchantment of the RMOA membership also extended to the Turf Club.

"We have one group, the Turf Club, issuing rules and edicts, without cognisance to the workload, and another group, the AIR, who have to pay for it. That's why we asked for a forum of all the parties earlier in the year because the mixture is creating problems," Dr Molony said.

That forum, which also included Horse Racing Ireland, was set up in April after an RMOA threat in March to strike unless their daily rate was increased to €500 to cover locum costs. However, agreement between the sides has proved impossible despite the intervention of the Irish Medical Organisation who have acted for the doctors recently.

"Our responsibility and exposure in working at racecourses is quite large and we have become more aware of the risk we run by covering them. Our advice has been to look for a more structured contract because as it is we may not be professionally indemnified," Molony added.

The AIR chief executive Paddy Walsh admitted yesterday that negotiations between the sides had broken down and said that from January, each individual racetrack will have to come to an agreement with its own medical personnel.

"We have advised our members to liase with their own doctors to ensure there is a sufficient service because they are all aware that racing cannot go ahead with no doctors in attendance. That was the way the matter was dealt with in the past anyway. It will be essentially back to each individual racecourse," Walsh said.

"What should be remembered is that around the year 2000, these guys were receiving under €200. In that light, you have to say there has been significant improvement. I have consulted the IRFU, the FAI, the GAA and other sporting bodies to make sure we are not out of line and if anything we are ahead of the posse," he added.

An interim agreement fee, reached in April, means that doctors currently receive €375 per day, a figure they insist does not cover their locum costs and which does not improve the chances of young doctors taking on the job in future. A total of 65 per cent of current RMOA members are over 50.

"We are facing a manpower crisis and if terms and conditions do not improve, they can only worsen," Molony said.

"Our responsibilities are changing all the time. It is extremely time consuming with more meetings on Sundays, Bank Holidays and soon Saturday nights. It is by no means family-friendly and it is now a full day's work.

"We are now being requested to travel in the ambulance during each race instead of being available from the course. We also have responsibility for spectators which can be up to 10,000 people," he added.

The AIR executive committee meets on Thursday but Paddy Walsh pointed to previous offers that had been turned down by the doctors.

"We were trying for a deal for the next three years and we gave it one final go where we offered €450, then €500 and finally €550 over those three years.

"We offered those figures on the basis that they would settle things. But the RMOA wanted €600-€700 and €800. That is a huge gap and we are a long way away from each other," he declared.

Both sides are aware of the delicacy of the problem in the light of the tragic year that Irish racing has suffered in 2003.

In August the leading jump rider Kieran Kelly died following a fall at Kilbeggan and less than three months later, the flat apprentice Sean Cleary also sustained fatal head injuries after a fall at Galway.

They were the first fatalities to hit the sport in Ireland for 18 years and they have resulted in a special health and safety review group having been set up this month by the Turf Club.