A weekend of turmoil in the Irish League of Credit Unions culminated in the election of a new president of the body two days after the successful candidate sought a High Court injunction to postpone the vote.

Brian McCrory, a Belfast teacher and league board member, defeated league vice-president Blanche Ronayne by 273 votes to 267 at the league’s annual meeting in Killarney, Co Kerry.

Mr McCrory went to the High Court on Friday to block the election after he took issue with comments set out in an email by the previous president, Martin Sisk, circulated last Wednesday to 455 credit unions in the league.

It was only after a special board meeting on Friday, which was convened on foot of the legal action, that the email was retracted and the election went ahead on Saturday afternoon. The league’s board has also resolved to reimburse Mr McCrory’s legal costs.

Arrears

The credit unions affiliated to the league have 3.3 million members and total assets in excess of €14 billion. While a number of credit unions ran into severe financial trouble in the financial crash, the league said arrears across the sector have fallen for 12 consecutive quarters and that “the majority” of its 365 credit unions in the Republic now meet Central Bank reserve requirements.

In a statement read to delegates at the annual meeting on Saturday, the league said circulation last week of the contentious email “seriously damaged and impugned the integrity of Mr McCrory and as such it is a cause of great regret”.

The email centred on newspaper coverage of a report by accountants Mazars on the operation of the league’s savings protection scheme, essentially a rescue fund to ensure depositors in any troubled credit union do not lose their funds.

While saying everything was in order with the operation of the scheme, the email is understood to have drawn a connection between the scheduled election and the emergence of news about the Mazars report.

“The league board accepts, without reservations, that Mr McCrory in offering himself as a candidate for the position of president of the ILCU has suffered grievous reputational damage by inference resulting from the offending circulation,” said the statement.

It went on to say that the board accepted Mr McCrory’s assurance “that he neither directly or indirectly leaked or caused to be published the draft Mazars report” on the protection scheme.

“Although Mr McCrory made many attempts to resolve the reputational effects upon him he was unable to satisfy himself that the matter was addressed. Mr McCrory was then obliged to engage legal advice and to advise the board of pending legal action - should the offending circulation not be withdrawn.”

Resolved

However, the league said the matter was “satisfactorily resolved” by issuing the statement to all credit unions which had received it, by circulating it to the media and by reading it to the annual meeting.

“If and when Mr McCrory commences action to recover financial recompense in respect of reputational damage he is prepared to submit the matter to arbitration as set out in the league rules to arrive at a full and final settlement,” the statement said.

“In respect of such action against a league employee both parties are at liberty to agree to deal with such action under the league arbitration rules.

“The board recognises Mr McCrory’s service, commitment and integrity with which he has served over many years his own credit union, the ILCU and WOCCU [the World Council of Credit Unions].”