Cycling Ireland held its Annual General Meeting on Saturday, September 30th, at Carrick-On-Shannon.
A new Constitution was adopted along with a range of governance, financial, administrative and structural reforms all by a significant or unanimous majority.
The organisation’s new CEO, James Quilligan, was introduced and gave a comprehensive report on the year’s activities, along with an overview of the administrative and financial management restructuring taking place.
Internal financial management and budgetary control systems have been overhauled – the work commenced in earnest in the second half of 2022 and continued into 2023.
The report also referred to 2022 as somewhat of a transition year for Cycling Ireland as it emerged from both the COVID-19 period and the governance crisis of 2020-2021.
This included a 12 month period when the sport was restricted from applying for capital grant funding after false quotations had been supplied in the submission of grant funding applications.
Membership grew over the year, rising to 26,000 from the previous year’s 22,000..
On the financial side substantial costs from legacy issues contributed to an operating loss of €184,642 for 2022. Excluding the impact of the increase in the value of the investment property, the underlying operating loss would have been €584,642.
Financial stability has now been achieved though and projections for the current year are positive.
An outline of the plan for the organization’s longer-term structural reform were delivered by Vice-President, Conor Campbell and CEO, James Quilligan.
“After a period of governance, financial and administrative reform – all ongoing – along with the very necessary constitutional and structural reforms that were considered here today, we have the stability and structures that gives us a platform to grow into one of the standout sporting organizations on the island,” said President Tom Daly.
“I believe this to be somewhat of a watershed AGM in the ongoing development of Cycling Ireland. Arising from a crisis period, we have, collectively achieved fundamental reform of higher-level governance; passed very necessary Constitutional reform, achieved financial stability, with a strong basis for growth and the re-building of our reserves, agreed on the need for structural reform and have commenced that process, are undertaking a significant overhaul of our executive structures including staffing, administrative and financial-management systems.”
“After three months of learning, it’s clear we have many incredibly passionate volunteers, a committed staff team and a board who are supporting change and progress,” added CEO James Quilligan.
“The key message from today’s AGM is that we can learn from the mistakes of the past. In the months ahead, I aim to build the trust and belief through better communication and improve every area of the organisation by working together.”
