The recruitment process to replace former Cycling Ireland technical director, Brian Nugent, has been launched for a second time after no successful candidate emerged from the first process that was run.
Nugent was also 'head coach' and that position also remains vacant, with a process currently underway to fill that vacancy.
News that both positions Nugent filled remain vacant, more than a year after his departure from the national governing body was announced, comes after a period in which several important figures have left Cycling Ireland, including:
- Kurt Bogaerts - Senior national road team direteur
- Brian Nugent - Head coach and also technical director
- Neil Martin - U23 national team directeur
- Martyn Irvine - Track coach
- Aaron Buggle - Interim high performance manager
- Rachel Ormrod - Education and programmes manager
- Craig Dowling - Performance programme asssistant
- Paul Manning - Interim track coach
Asked if there was any reason for the departures, Cycling Ireland said: "There are many and varied reasons given for these departures including time commitments and other career opportunities. It wouldn’t be fair to comment specifically on individuals as each has their own personal reasons to for moving on."
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When asked if plans were underway to replace personnel, the national governing body said: "From a staffing point of view there will be further job advertisements published in the coming weeks and months and the ambition is to increase staffing levels in order to support the growth and development of cycling which is recognised as a priority sport within the National Sports Policy."
Cycling Ireland president Ciaran McKenna has also departed as well as board members Ronan McLaughlin, Yvonne Nolan, Orla Carolan and Gillian McDarby; some by rotation and some of their own volition, before their terms in their posts were due to expire.
In reply to queries from stickybottle, Cycling Ireland said Liam Collins, Conor Campbell and Marcus Dowling have recently joined the board. Collins, who is now the president of Cycling Ireland, and Campbell were elected to the board at the AGM late last year while Dowling was recently co-opted onto the board.
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"Two further female board members with relevant expertise will be appointed and this process is currently underway and necessary to address gender balance at board level," Cycling Ireland added.
One of those appointments, that of Emma Hunt Duffy, was announced yesterday. Cycling Ireland said he "leads the marketing department in Fyffes and has previously held senior marketing positions at Keogh’s Crisps, EBS and Ryanair".
Nugent's departure from the 'technical director' and 'head coach' posts was announced in early December 2020. It was stated at the time he would remain in the jobs for three months and he left those positions in February last year, though he has coached the team pursuit squad for long periods since then.
His positions were advertised, with the 'technical director' job advertised as 'high performance director' last year. However, the recruitment competition that was run failed to find a candidate to fill the post.
The job was effectively re-advertised last month and that second recruitment competition has not yet concluded, with the process to find a new 'head coach' also continuing.
Former Irish international Aaron Buggle was appointed interim high performance manager last summer. Cycling Ireland announced that appointment on June 16th, saying it would be for four months until October. Buggle had left the role before the World Road Championships in Belgium, which began on September 19th. The former pro rider and ex-Irish international is now pursuing other interests.
The head coach job Nugent did was also filled for a period on an interim basis by Paul Manning, the former top track rider who won the team pursuit at the Olympics in 2008 with Great Britain. Manning's appointment as 'interim head track coach' was announced by Cycling Ireland for 10 weeks on September 20th. Manning's term has now long expired and he has left the organisation.
Though the position of head coach remains unfilled, a second interim high performance director is now in place, in the shape of Paul Carragher. He has been 'head of performance support' for cycling at Sport Ireland Institute and is a physiotherapist by profession.
