The Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture & the Marine will invite trainer Jim Bolger to appear before it next month in relation to his claims of doping in Irish racing.
Bolger repeated his belief earlier this month that doping is Irish racing’s number one problem and criticised the sport’s regulator for failing to find drug-cheats.
In a high-profile interview the multiple-classic winning trainer said “there will be a Lance Armstrong in Irish racing,” a reference to the disgraced former Tour de France winning cyclist.
Bolger hasn’t named anybody publicly and said he hasn’t named anyone in interviews with the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board. The IHRB has said it has a zero tolerance stance on doping.
The government has given €76.8 million to the sector this year through Horse Racing Ireland which is one of the bodies set to be invited to appear before the Agriculture Committee in relation to Bolger’s controversial claims.
The under-fire IHRB and the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association, which maintains doping is not a major problem in Ireland, are also set to be appear before the Committee.
The Committee’s chair, Fianna Fáil TD Jackie Cahill, said there was unanimity among members that the seriousness of Bolger’s claims in the public domain meant the issue had to be addressed.
“We agreed to invite Jim Bolger, HRI, the IHRB, the Department of Agriculture and the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association.
“We have set July 6th as the date for the meeting and I would imagine, with the amount of people that will be attending, we would require two sessions to get through everybody,” he told the Racing Post on Tuesday.
“We would hope to have two two-hour slots on July 6th dealing with these allegations and then we will decide where we go from there,” he added.
The IHRB has said it would welcome the opportunity to explain its anti-doping strategy to the Committee and Horse Racing Ireland confirmed on Tuesday evening it hasn’t received any invitation yet but will attend if invited.
It appears unclear what Bolger’s response to any invitation will be.
It is also unclear what degree of privilege the outspoken trainer might have should he appear in front of the Committee and whether or not he will be able to back up his explosive claims with names.
He has said he can’t publicly name those he believes to be cheating as he doesn’t want to risk legal proceedings but remains adamant that doping is going on.
Different levels of privilege are understood to apply for different participants at such hearings.
