The former chief executive of Cycling Ireland, Matt McKerrow, has been working in a new senior role in Irish sport after securing the post, with Rowing Ireland, a number of months ago.
In is his latest role in national governing bodies since leaving Cycling Ireland, after a period of intense controversy. He was previously also chief executive at Triathlon Ireland and, also before his Cycling Ireland stint, worked for Sport New Zealand.
After leaving his Cycling Ireland post in February, 2023, having been in the job for almost four years, McKerrow three months later began a stint as interim chief executive at Hockey Ireland.
Immediately on leaving that role, in September 2023, he began working as a senior associate at 2into3. It specialises in "working with sports organisations of all sizes to help them define, fund and achieve their ambitions".
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He is now working as 'governance and planning lead' at Rowing Ireland. He was one of a number of appointments announced in July and was part of the Rowing Ireland delegation at the Olympic Sport Awards in Dublin at the weekend.
During McKerrow’s time at Cycling Ireland he came under pressure after a number of controversies at the national governing body.
It emerged, in increments in late 2021 and early 2022, that Cycling Ireland - though not McKerrow - had used false quotations to apply for Department of Sports capital grants in 2020. The cycling body was suspended from applying for any further grants for a year
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However, that suspension was already fully served – expiring in October 2021 – before the media learned of the controversy.
Separately, a major dispute broke out, over a period between late 2021 and early 2022, about plans by Cycling Ireland to fund a small group of riders – or academy – within the Irish UCI Continental EvoPro Racing cycling team.
Some board members were concerned about the level of information shared, or not shared, with them about the proposal and the possible costs involved. The plan was eventually discontinued and the board of Cycling Ireland has since been reconfigured.
As a result of the controversies, a number of consultants’ reports or audits were compiled, with Cycling Ireland forced to pay hundreds of thousands of Euros in the fall-out, including legal fees.
A governance report commissioned by the national governing body in 2021 cost of €80,000. The most noted increase in spending was on “professional fees”, which increased to €706,129 in 2021, up from just €58,047 in 2020 – an increase of €648,000.
Another report, commissioned by Sport Ireland into governance at Cycling Ireland, discovered multiple shortcomings and “failures” as well as a lack confidence by the board in the executive, who were full-time paid officials.
The report, which has made available in July 2022 after queries from stickybottle, also said false quotation documents used by Cycling Ireland to apply for Department of Sport capital grants “have no place in any procurement procedure”.
The Sport Ireland KOSI Audit report also dealt with the aftermath of the grants debacle, noting no immediate investigation was carried out within Cycling Ireland. That, into concluded at the time, “further undermines confidence in effectiveness, control and accountability” within the national governing body.
