Cycling Ireland has said its chief executive, Matt McKerrow, did not attend the recent Oireachtas committee meeting about governance in the national governing body because it was decided board members should take the lead role in the explaining the reforms underway in the organisation.
The hearing, held last week, was something of an anti-climax as it had
been delayed for months so that an important report into recent events would be
published and could be discussed at the hearing.
However the ‘BDO report’ – by auditors BDO – into Cycling Ireland’s proposed
financial support for an academy within the EvoPro Racing Irish Continental
team was not published in time. It remains unpublished.
It meant the Oireachtas Committee
on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media hearing – which both Cycling Ireland Sport Ireland
were invited to - went ahead last week with the intended main topic of discussion
effectively off the agenda.
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Instead, there was some discussion about general governance issues in Cycling
Ireland, though the hearing bizarrely strayed, at times, into a conversation about
the recent turbulent events within the Irish Amateur Boxing Association.
One noted featured of the hearing was the difference in personnel chosen by Sport Ireland and Cycling Ireland to appear before the TDs and senators to answer their questions.
Sport Ireland, as is traditional for many national bodies appearing before Oireachtas committees, was represented by its most senior official, chief executive Una May, alongside Paul McDermott, the director of national governing bodies and high performance.
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Cycling Ireland was represented by two volunteer board members, vice president Tom Daly and Hellen Kerrane. Both were appointed in recent months. That means they were not in place when the recent controversies unfolded around the proposed EvoPro Racing deal and the use of false quotations by Cycling Ireland to apply for grants from the Department of Sport.
The choice of personnel meant no full-time paid officials
from Cycling Ireland were at the hearing to answer questions and nobody who was
in place in Cycling Ireland during the recent controversies was at the hearing,
which was hamstrung from the outset by the continued delay in the publication
of the BDO report.
Stickybottle asked Cycling Ireland why the chief executive of
the national governing body, Mr McKerrow, had not been present at the meeting,
considering the chief executive of Sport Ireland, Ms May, did attend to take
questions.
Cycling Ireland said in reply: “The Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Sport and Media invited Cycling Ireland to a public session of the committee to discuss governance structures and other reforms within the organisation. This took place on 13 July 2022.
"Based on the topics to be discussed and the desire of the new board to take ownership of the reform programme which is being implemented, it was decided that vice president Tom Daly and board member Hellen Kerrane would communicate the positive progress made to date on behalf of the board.”
The explanation comes just days after the Sport Ireland KOSI Audit report, into governance failings at Cycling Ireland, emerged publicly for the first time. It should not noted the KOSI report was drawn up last year, long before any of the current board members - including Mr Daly and Ms Kerrane - were in place.
Some of the report's conclusions pointed to an over-reach by the board into certain areas within the national governing body. The report stated "the continuing role of the president in signing off payments and the necessity considered by the board to intervene in the high-performance area points to a lack of full confidence of the board in the executive".
For its part, Cycling Ireland's executive - full-time paid officials including the chief executive - were also "uncomfortable with what is considered as over reach on behalf of the board".
