No out-of-competition testing has been conducted on any intercounty team, some three months after the GAA and the Irish Sports Council agreed to the procedure under the existing national anti-doping programme. It leaves the GAA as the only sport in the country signed up to the programme still limited to the less effective in-competition testing.

Neither the GAA nor the Sports Council offer any explanation for the delay in introducing out-of-competition tests since coming to formal agreement on the matter at the end of last year. Yet they've already missed a large chunk of the season, with the football league entering its final round proper this weekend and the hurling league also beyond the midway stage.

Central to the agreement on out-of-competition testing was that it would be restricted to senior intercounty training venues during the league and championship, and that players wouldn't be subject to testing in their homes or workplaces. But that fits the general trend of out-of-competition testing in that it is with individual sports such as athletics, cycling or swimming - where organised training doesn't often feature - where visits to the home or workplace are required.

The Sports Council's anti-doping programme in general is also undergoing a makeover in the coming weeks to be brought into line with the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) code, which came into effect on January 1st. On April 20th, the Sports Council will be officially launching their updated rules regarding certain anti-doping measures, which will then come into effect from June 1st.

Yet according to a spokesman for the Irish Sports Council, the rule changes have no bearing on the implementation of out-of-competition testing but instead are more concerned with new disciplinary measures, which will be fixed across all sports.

"Obviously we want to press ahead with out-of-competition testing as soon as possible," he said. "So it is more of an organisational matter, and a question of getting it off the ground. It's still something of a milestone for the GAA, but we do want to get it out of the way. And at the moment there isn't really any obstacle in the way."

Ciarán O'Neill, secretary of the GAA's anti-doping committee, also said there was no apparent reason for the delay. "Well, we have cleared it," he said, "and agreed on the process with the Sports Council. So it's really up to them to commence it, because we have no issue with it."

Since becoming a statutory body in 1999, the Sports Council has been responsible for anti-doping in Irish sport, but it hasn't always had a smooth ride with the GAA.

The first in-competition test took place after the All-Ireland hurling final in 2001, but the 2002 championship season started in controversy when two Waterford hurlers initially refused to take a test.

This time last year the Sports Council's chief executive, John Treacy, announced that out-of-competition testing would happen in the GAA "sooner rather than later", yet no final agreement was reached until last December.

In the first full year of GAA testing, 2002, 44 players were tested, the sixth-highest of the 35 national sporting bodies tested under the programme - with only athletics (147), rugby (125), rowing (70), cycling (61) and boxing (55) receiving more tests.

There were another 12 tests carried out in women's Gaelic football.

Significantly, the GAA's director general, Liam Mulvihill, will welcome the introduction of out-of-competition testing in his address to Congress in Killarney later this month.