A new Executive Committee for the Olympic Council of Ireland will be put in place on the evening of February 9th amid the surroundings of the Conrad Hotel in Dublin.
That is the date and venue for the Extraordinary General Meeting of the OCI called arising out of the scandals which have engulfed the organisation since the arrest of former president Pat Hickey in Rio earlier this year.
The hotel is located beside the Dublin offices of Arthur Cox solicitors, one of the groups brought in to assist in management of the scandal, and part of what is now understood to be a €1 million expense in consultancy fees.
The report prepared by Grant Thornton into ticketing matters at the OCI was suspended on the eve of its publication following the threat of legal action from Pat Hickey in Rio while the Government’s independent non-statutory inquiry into the whole affair will likely be some months away and long after a new Committee has been elected.
Hickey himself will be back in the country by that time and it remains to be seen if he will formally resign his position in advance. To date he has ‘temporarily stepped down’ from his positions with the OCI and other organisations in the Olympic movement including the European Olympic Committee and the Association of National Olympic Committees which has loaned him the money to pay his bond and secure his return to Dublin from Rio for medical treatment.
The notice of the EGM stated clearly that elections will be held for all positions on the Committee, including that of President.
Nominations for the different places will close on Wednesday, January 11th giving sporting administrators and others an opportunity to mull over the Christmas break whether they will put themselves forward.
Nominations can be made by each of the 36 National Governing Bodies of sport that are affiliated to the Olympic Council of Ireland. John Delaney representing the FAI, Ciaran O’Cathain from Athletics and Kevin Kilty from shooting have all resigned from the Committee since the scandal broke.
There is no obvious capacity for external independent Committee members to be included on the ballot, nor any role for Government appointed members as the OCI is a wholly independent organisation, albeit in receipt of substantial funding through Sport Ireland.
Whether such funding is made for 2017 may not yet be known at the time of the EGM.
In a separate development yesterday Junior Minister Michael Ring called on his successors in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport to confirm the appointment of two new directors to the board of Sport Ireland which have been on ice since the election last February.
Ring is reported to have suggested the appointment of former Olympian Derval O’Rourke and accountant and former Chair of Eirgrid Bernie Gray to the board over a year ago but no action has yet been takin to fill the roles.
Their appointment would bring the number of Women on the board of Sport Ireland above the 30% threshold suggested by Minister of State Patrick O’Donovan this week.
