Three independent directors have resigned from the board of Cycling Ireland, amid an escalating governance row in the body and tension over a “new issue” that has arisen.
The departures on Wednesday came as Cycling Ireland submitted a letter on the turmoil in the board to Sport Ireland, the State authority responsible for supervising national sports governing bodies.
“The letter explains that the current dispute arises from a new issue that the board is working to resolve,” said a Sport Ireland spokesman, without elaborating on the issue in question.
The resignations follow a public clash between board directors and Cycling Ireland president Liam Collins after controversy arose over its submission of “false” quotations for a Government grant in 2020.
That affair emerged many months before the arrival on the board of two of the directors who resigned on Wednesday, four days after Mr Collins publicly called for their departure.
One was Marcus Dowling SC, who joined the Cycling Ireland board in December and was chairman of its governance committee. The second was Emma Hunt Duffy, who became a director last month and had not attended a board meeting before her resignation was sought.
The third, Brendan Tallon, had been a director since November 2017 and was vice-president of the body.
In a joint resignation letter seen by The Irish Times, the three said the assertion by Mr Collins that their departure would strengthen governance had no basis in fact and was damaging and wrong.
“The board was given no prior notice that Mr Collins intended issuing that statement. It was not authorised by the company. Mr Collins did not seek to engage with us in advance of issuing the statement to resolve his issues,” they said.
“In the statement, Mr Collins called upon us to resign to ‘strengthen governance’ in the company. In fact, this statement has distracted from specific and focused governance-related work that the board is engaged upon arising out of recent issues concerning the company.”
In their letter, the departing directors said Mr Collins had not proposed to any board meeting that any director should resign.
‘Very disappointed’
A Cycling Ireland spokesman declined to comment when asked last night about the departures, the resignation letter or any other aspect of the divisions in the body. “We are very disappointed to be losing board directors of the calibre of Brendan, Emma and Marcus. We have written to Sport Ireland and will not be commenting further at this time,” he said.
Sport Ireland said the letter from Cycling Ireland restates its commitment to implementing the governance recommendations set out in an October 2021 internal audit report by Kosi Corporation, which highlighted errors, ineptitude and governance failings in the body over the grant application.
“That is helpful information. However, as three independent board members have tendered their resignations, this indicates the board is not united in its views,” said the Sport Ireland spokesman.
“Sport Ireland remains available to work with Cycling Ireland to resolve outstanding issues but there can be no doubt that there are real ongoing concerns about how issues within the [national governing body] are unfolding.”
Mr Collins said in his statement on Saturday that he was seeking the three board resignations as part of a wider board overhaul, adding that he himself would resign before an annual general meeting scheduled for November. Board relations were “far from ideal” and was “little prospect” of an improvement in the near future, he said.
