Horse Sport Ireland: Further board member resigns amid governance controversy

A further member of the board of the national governing body for equestrian sports has resigned, leaving the chairman of the organisation as its sole remaining director.

Horse Sport Ireland (HSI), which received more than €7 million in public funding this year, has been dealing with a growing governance controversy over a major boardroom fallout.

Six of the eight members of the organisation’s board resigned earlier this month. Four of the six directors who stepped down, including former TD Lucinda Creighton, did so due to a lack of support for the current management of HSI.

[ Majority of Horse Sport Ireland board resigns amid governance turmoil ]

The Naas-based organisation had been left with just two remaining directors this week, chair of the board Joe Reynolds and Edward Doyle.

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Mr Reynolds confirmed on Wednesday that Mr Doyle had now also resigned from his position.

When contacted for comment, Mr Doyle criticised the media for reporting on the current controversy facing HSI, stating it had not covered previous positive stories about the industry.

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.

The controversy has seen a number of senior figures in the equestrian industry call for Mr Reynolds to also stand down.

In a letter to Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue on Tuesday night, representatives of Dressage Ireland, the Irish Horse Board, and Showjumping Ireland, said the chair should resign.

The statement was signed by Tiernan Gill, chair of the Irish Horse Board, Marguerite McSweeney, chair of Dressage Ireland, Ronan Corrigan, chair of Showjumping Ireland’s finance committee.

Christy Murphy, chair of Showjumping Ireland, an affiliate organisation of HSI, said the letter reflected the organisation’s position. ”There needs to be a change,” he said on Wednesday.

There were “deeply rooted problems” with HSI, related to a number of issues that needed to be addressed, he said.

Both Mr Duggan and Mr Reynolds declined to comment on Wednesday.

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.

They added it was “regrettable” that amid those divisions the chair had become “a target of increasingly personalised and unfounded comments that do little to heal divisions”.

Last month, HSI took legal action over a department decision to award a contract for marketing services promoting the industry to the Irish Horse Board, a membership body for horse breeders. HSI had previously been funded to provide the services and initiated a judicial review in the High Court to overturn the department’s decision.

It is understood several board members disagreed with the decision to take legal action against its main public funder.