Minister O’Donovan Welcomes World Anti-Doping Leaders To Ireland

Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Patrick O’Donovan TD, today welcomed the leaders of 18 National Anti-Doping Organisations (NADOS) to Dublin for a two-day summit hosted by Sport Ireland.

The summit, which takes place at Farmleigh, will see NADO leaders from Ireland, USA, UK, Japan, Canada and Germany amongst other countries consider the implications of the recent McLaren Reports on state-sponsored doping and subversion of anti-doping, and further develop the reform proposals previously published by the group.

Minister O’Donovan said: “I would like to welcome the leaders of the 18 National Anti-Doping Organisations to Ireland for what is a vitally important summit which will discuss some of the very challenging issues facing the fight against doping in sport. I am delighted that Ireland, through Sport Ireland, is playing a lead role in these efforts which will protect interests of clean athletes and the integrity of international sport.”

This is the third meeting of the group with summits having taken place in Copenhagen and Bonn in 2016. Following the Copenhagen meeting calls were made for global reform in the fight against doping in sport, including the strengthening of WADA, which were again reiterated following October’s gathering in Bonn.

Minister O’Donovan continued: “Recent events have shown that there is a real need for reform in the global fight against doping. It is vitally important that the recommendations which emerged from the Copenhagen summit are implemented to protect the integrity of sport at the highest level. Ireland has strong support for WADA, but in order for WADA to carry out its duty to protect that integrity it needs to be strengthened to enhance its powers of investigation and protect whistle-blowers. It is important that momentum in this fight must not be lost and that the energy for difficult changes doesn’t wane, and I look forward to seeing the outcomes of this summit.”

Countries represented at the summit include: Ireland, Spain, Belgium, Canada, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, USA, Denmark, Japan, Austria, Poland and France.