Just over five month after leaving Cycling Ireland following a sustained period of controversy, Matt McKerrow is back at the helm of an Irish sports national governing body.
McKerrow's departure from Cycling Ireland was announced last November, after 3½ years in the role. He officially left the position a month later and was replaced by interim chief executive, Chris Kitchen, who previously led Triathlon Ireland.
McKerrow - who was previously Triathlon Ireland CEO - was linked to the chief executive's role at Tennis Ireland, just one month after leaving Cycling Ireland. However, while the Tennis Ireland job went to Kevin Quinn, Leinster Rugby’s former head of commercial and marketing, McKerrow has now landed a new senior role in Irish sport.
He has just been installed as interim chief executive of Hockey Ireland. And while he takes that position on an interim basis, it confirms his move back into a senior position at a national governing body working under Sport Ireland.
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Hockey Ireland has about 42,000 members and 160 clubs across the country. Its headquarters is on UCD's Belfield campus in south Dublin and it has a high performance office on the Sport Ireland Campus in west Dublin, where Cycling Ireland's head office is located.
Hockey Ireland recently launched a recruitment process to find a new permanent chief executive to replace Ronan Murphy. He stepped down after less than a year in the role to take up an international job offer. McKerrow will run Hockey Ireland until Murphy's replacement is found and is in place.
During McKerrow's time at Cycling Ireland he came under pressure after a number of controversies at the national governing body. This included the use of false quotation documents by Cycling Ireland – though not by McKerrow – to apply for Department of Sports grants in 2020 and the fall-out from the failed proposal to enter into a strategic relationship with the Irish Continental team EvoPro Racing.
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.
Details of further expenditure as a result of the controversies are still set to emerge in the accounts for 2022. However, Cycling Ireland has said most of the expenditure relating to the controversies was set out in its 2021 accounts.
