Three athletes failed doping tests carried out by Sport Ireland last year, two of whom were in Gaelic Football and motorsports.

1,028 anti-doping tests were carried out in 2015, 295 of these were blood tests.

Sport Ireland says it’s moving away from the emphasis on in-competition testing, with three quarters of tests now done out of competition.

Dr Una May, Director of Participation and Ethics at Irish Sports Council, explained the reasoning behind the change in emphasis.

“It’s really important that athletes have the risk that they will be tested on competition day, because we don’t want anyone competing with an unfair advantage,” May said.

“However, it is relatively predictable that we do come each year, we come to the major competitions, and we’re trying to move away from predictable testing - to more sophisticated, more intelligence-led and targeted testing.

“That’s where we go to athletes at their homes and teams at their training venues to try and catch them at a time when they’re not expecting us to arrive.”