YOU could probably call it a bit of a victory for the defence when the prosecution benches start squabbling among themselves on who gets to pose the questions.

The first Oireachtas session where members of the Dáil Agriculture committee put questions on recent allegations to HRI’s Brian Kavanagh, the IHRB’s Denis Egan and Dr Lynn Hillyer, got a bit stuck as TD Michael Ring and senator Ronan Mullen had bit of a squabble about jumping the gun on procedures. The “it’s my turn to speak, no, it’s mine”, “I have a right to speak before him,” was all a bit unedifying, given they only had a set amount of time and the more squabbling, the less time for anyone to question those at the hearing.

That aside, the eagerly awaited hearing addressed many of the accusations stemming from Jim Bolger’s initial comments and subsequent media coverage that there was a major problem with doping in Irish racing and the authorities were ignoring or incapable of doing anything about it.

It was a pretty strong performance amid some of the direct questioning to Dr Lynn Hillyer, though time was taken with background on testing records from Dr Clive Pearce, laboratory director and director of sport at LGC, the laboratory used by both the IHRB and BHA in Britain.

Accusations of samples not been taken and having not been tested were strongly refuted.

“We’ve been quoted as having not analysed every sample – that is simply untrue. We’ve been said to have a rubbish lab – that is simply untrue. The frustration is from the reporting and the headlines, not from people coming forward and telling us information,” Hillyer said.

She denied that information given was not acted upon, stating all was recorded and investigated. She was direct on the recent allegation that six horses sold from Ireland to the UK who were alleged to have traces of anabolic steroids.

“We were alleged to be doing nothing about it, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The minute that information came to the BHA they acted on it and communicated with us – we were across it and we were prepared to act. They analysed tail hair, mane hair – they analysed samples repeatedly, and there was nothing.

“We need to differentiate between information coming in and hearsay. I’m not saying we disregard either, but we have to process it and assess it.”

It was also denied that any trainer had taken out injunctions to prevent investigations.

Some time was spent on the French Zilpaterol failures from last year, but of course those positives were also not found by the British authorities.

Of course, much of what has been suggested in the media coverage is all done and dusted, while all the increased powers and ramping up of testing are all good, they are taking things from these days forward. Bolting the stable door after a few horses have bolted, even though there’s not likely to be CCTV to show who opened the door, may still not satisfy.

Two more sessions are to take place on next Tuesday and July 20th. This one revealed little but the authorities will have been happy no wounding blows were struck.