Brian Gormley made show jumping history yesterday, resigning after a mere eight days in office to become the shortest-serving national chairman of the Show Jumping Association of Ireland.
The move came at an emergency meeting of the SJAI executive in Co Kildare last night, with the Co Longford veterinary surgeon's resignation coming at the start of the meeting to pre-empt a motion of no confidence that had been tabled by the association's Munster region.
Gormley, who proposed vice-chairman Tony Hurley as his successor - he was unanimously appointed - stated after the four-hour meeting that he had resigned "in the interest of harmony in the association".
But there was no decision on this week's investigation into the alleged breach of the Employment Act that brought about the suspension of a former SJAI director who had been in the temporary employ of the association since last July. Director general Tony Kelly has also been stood down while the matter is being investigated.
Although a detailed report on the inquiry was delivered to the executive, none of the findings were released after the meeting. New chairman Hurley said that no statement on the matter will be issued until next Wednesday.
There was one bright spot on the horizon, however, as the Equestrian Federation unanimously agreed at its meeting earlier in the day not to suspend the SJAI from membership.
The federation had announced after an executive meeting on January 6th that it was seeking legal advice to ascertain that suspension of the SJAI was viable, but despite confirmation that it would be a constitutional move, the federation directors unanimously agreed that it would not proceed with the proposed suspension.
The SJAI now has 14 days to respond to a series of questions put by the federation at yesterday's meeting. Federation president Lewis Lowry said that if satisfactory answers are not presented at a further meeting of the EFI directors next Friday week, suspension could still be an option.
A new sub-committee, made up of the six SJAI representatives on the Federation and the three members of the association's now disbanded finance committee, are to hold what Tony Hurley describes as "a once-off meeting to get the necessary information to give a full and frank answer to those questions".
The sub-committee is scheduled to meet on Thursday, February 10th and recommendations from that meeting are expected to be ratified at a meeting of the association's executive that night. The directors of the federation will convene for further debate the following day.
The six SJAI representatives have already given assurances that they will return within the two-week deadline with answers.
The federation has posed a series of questions relating to the SJAI's failure to appoint a full-time financial and business director. It has also requested a definition of the term "vested interest", which was contained in the management and finance committee's report to the SJAI executive on December 7th last year.
The report identified "serious and continuing irregularities" that the finance committee claimed were being supported and encouraged by members of the executive that had "a vested interest in these bad practices not being challenged or questioned".
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