Chairman resigns from board of Horse Sport Ireland

The chairman of Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) has agreed to resign following a major boardroom fallout, with Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue appointing several new directors to the governing body.

The chair of the board, Joe Reynolds, had been the sole remaining director after the rest of the board resigned in recent weeks, throwing the national governing body for equestrian sports into major turmoil.

Four of the seven directors who previously stepped down, including former TD Lucinda Creighton, did so due to a lack of support for the current management of HSI.

The board had been split in its support of the chief executive, Denis Duggan, with a majority of directors voting to dismiss him at a meeting in early November, sources said.

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In recent days senior figures in the equestrian industry had called for the Minister to step in and remove Mr Reynolds.

In a statement on Thursday, Mr McConalogue said Mr Reynolds had agreed to step down from his role on the board.

The Minister said Michael Dowling, former chair of Kerry Group PLC, is to step in as chair of the board.

Several other individuals were to be appointed as directors; Prof Niamh Brennan, professor of management at UCD, Zoe Kavanagh, chief executive of the National Dairy Council, and Dr Kevin Smyth, former chief financial officer at the Department of Agriculture.

The appointments would be effective immediately, he said.

[ Horse Sport Ireland: Further board member resigns amid governance controversy ]

“What is important now is that we have a period of stability for the organisation and its staff in the period running up to the next Olympics,” Mr McConalogue said.

“This is a strong team and I am grateful that they have agreed to serve in order to bring stability to the organisation. I know that they will work closely with the sector and cast an objective eye at the running of the organisation, the development of the sector and the stewardship of almost €7 million in public funds annually,” he said.

One source in HSI said “deep divisions” had arisen on its board this year, with directors split on a range of key issues.

“Certain individuals and groups have chosen to align themselves with one particular side within that split and these comments should be viewed in that context,” the source said.

Mr Reynolds had previously stood in as interim chief executive of HSI, before Mr Duggan was appointed chief executive at the start of this year.

In a statement, Mr Reynolds said “deep divisions” had arose at board level, which had not been possible to bridge.

“Matters came to a head recently when a number of Directors voted in a favour of a motion at a Board meeting against specific legal advice. The course of events led directly to the ongoing Board issues becoming irreconcilable,” he said.

Mr Reynolds said he offered to step down 10 days ago during a meeting with the Minister.

“He requested that I remain in my position, while the Department took steps to make changes to the Board.

I agreed to do so and have continued to work closely with Department officials in recent days and kept them fully informed of developments,” he said.

He said he had decided to step aside now to allow a new board have a “clean slate”.

He said many reforms had been introduced in recent years. “There is still more work to be done in this area and that will be a key task for the new Board,” he said.

Mr Duggan has declined to comment on the governance controversy in recent days.