Sport Ireland, which last week expressed its concern at recent events in Cycling Ireland, has now said it is pleased with the progress being made. The national sports funding body was commenting after Cycling Ireland announced the reconfiguration of its board of directors.
Announcing the latest three departures, of seven, from the board last evening, Cycling Ireland also announced six new board members had been put in place, in a process carried out in conjunction with Sport Ireland.
And now Sport Ireland’s new chief executive, Una May, has said her agency was “pleased to see progress made by Cycling Ireland in addressing the recent issues”. It was referring to general progress rather than commenting on any individuals.
“In particular, the commitment to implementing all of the recommendations included in the recent audit commissioned by Sport Ireland, is vitally important as the organisation looks to regain stability,” she said in a statement.
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“There has been good progress made in this regard. Another positive step for Cycling Ireland is the achievement of gender balance on its board, a key tenant of the recently published Sports Action Plan.
“We look forward to meeting with the new chair of the (sic) Cycling Ireland as soon as possible. Sport Ireland continues to provide ongoing advice and support to Cycling Ireland, and will work closely with all members of the board and executive in the ongoing development of the sport at all levels.”
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The weekend before last, Collins released a statement to Cycling
Ireland members and then the board released a conflicting statement 24 hours
later.
Collins signaled his intent to step down before the next AGM and
urged the directors to resign or step back, like him, before the AGM in
November. He believed relations on the board were poor and that it should step
back, for now, and allow Cycling Ireland chief executive, Matt McKerrow, and his
team run the organisation.
He said he was making the suggestion so that the recommendations
contained in an audit commissioned by Sport Ireland could be implemented,
adding his call for directors to resign was no reflection on the individuals.
However, the board statement said Collins had released his
statement of his own volition and it reiterated the board’s commitment to work
for cycling in Ireland. The board also said it planned to hold an EGM to make a
presentation about progress being made after recent controversy.
This included the fall-out from Cycling Ireland using false
quotations to apply for Department of Sport grants in 2020.
After those conflicting statements were released, Sport Ireland
told stickybottle it was concerned as the board of Cycling Ireland was clearly
not unified. However, it has now stated its satisfaction with progress being
made.
