Three members of the board of Cycling Ireland have
contacted Sport Ireland to signal their intention to resign from their
positions at the national governing body.
Marcus Dowling, Emma Hunt Duffy and Brendan Tallon all
wrote to Sport Ireland yesterday to confirm their intention to resign, with
those resignations set to become effective from next week, February 23rd.
Their resignations come just days after the president of
Cycling Ireland, Liam Collins, asked them – as appointed board members – to resign
and signaled his intent to step down
before his term of office is due to expire at the AGM in November.
Collins also asked the other, elected, members of the
board to resign, like him, ahead of the next AGM. He said his request was no
reflection on any of the individuals, but he believed the running of Cycling
Ireland should be left to chief executive Matt McKerrow and his team while
reforms were being implemented within the organisation.
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Another board member, Noel Mulroy, has already resigned from his position. He stepped down last Friday, February 11th.
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The four resignations mean the board now consists of:
Collins, Anthony Mitchel, Eugene Moriarty, Carl Fullerton and Conor Campbell.
It emerged in recent weeks that Cycling Ireland had used
false quotations when applying for Department of Sport grants in 2020 and the
fall-out from that controversy is continuing. The resigning board members were
not involved with Cycling Ireland at that time.
A review of Cycling Ireland by governance experts KOSI,
and commissioned by Sport Ireland after the false quotations were identified,
contained recommendations for reform. Those recommendations are being
implemented under the supervision of Sport Ireland.
Collins said if the board stepped back for now and
allowed McKerrow and his team to manage the organisation, most of the
challenges now facing Cycling Ireland may have run their course by the time of
the next AGM in November. He said any board member who stepped back could run
for election again at that AGM.
Just 24 hours after Collins issued his statement to members of Cycling Ireland last Saturday night the board issued a statement re-affirming their commitment to working for the good of Irish cycling and signaling they had decided to call an EGM.
More to come.
