Cycling Ireland may face Oireachtas grilling over State grant debacle

Cycling Ireland faces the prospect of a grilling before an Oireachtas committee after a Government TD said the body’s use of “false quotations” to claim a State grant raised sharp questions over its governance.

Fine Gael deputy Ciaran Cannon said Cycling Ireland should be called to answer questions about the grant affair at the Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media, of which he is a member.

“It’s deeply disappointing to see and I would hope that the necessary governance structures are put in place to ensure that this doesn’t happen again,” said Mr Cannon, himself a keen cyclist.

A Cycling Ireland spokesman said “yes” when asked whether the body would appear before the committee if called.

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The Department of Sport had suspended the organisation’s access to capital funding for 12 months after it submitted false comparative quotations with an application for a €52,100 grant.

The department rejected the grant application, and Cycling Ireland has now insisted it has taken all necessary steps to deal with the issue and is overhauling its governance.

Cycling Ireland has come under new leadership after Co Limerick-based accountant Liam Collins became president of the body and chairman of its board in November 2021. Three new board members have also been appointed in recent months, among them Marcus Dowling SC, who is now chairman of the governance and risk subcommittee.

‘Encouraging’ appointments

Cycling Ireland, which has some 22,000 members and is the national governing body for cycling across the island of Ireland, is the trading name for the Irish Cycling Federation.

Although moves are in train to appoint a further board member with specific expertise in risk to the governance subcommittee, other Cycling Ireland board officers have been in place for years. They include vice-president Brendan Tallon and treasurer Eugene Moriarty, each in their fifth year on the board, and Anthony Mitchel, who is in his eighth year as secretary.

Mr Cannon said he was “encouraged” by the recent board appointments and that Cycling Ireland was moving in the direction of improved governance.

Asked whether current directors who were on the board in 2020 when the grant application was made had questions to answer, Mr Cannon said they did, without referring to any individual specifically.

“I would ask: what structures are in place from an accountancy perspective and from a financial perspective to ensure that any applications for funding from the State or any other organisations are managed in a careful manner?” the TD said. “And what degree of oversight is given to board members on matters of this nature?”

Asked about Mr Cannon’s assertion about current directors who were directors in 2020 had questions to answer, the body’s spokesman said the board was responsible for the governance of Cycling Ireland.

“However, while the events occurred without the knowledge or involvement of the board, it has conceded that the matter should not have happened, and it has initiated a series of robust measures to ensure there is no future repeat of the situation,” the spokesman said.

Asked whether there were any restrictions under Cycling Ireland’s internal rules on how long directors could stay, the spokesman said: “The current term is for three years and no one can serve more than three consecutive terms.”