New body may not be legal

There are growing doubts that the Irish Amateur Swimming Association (IASA) can deliver on the most important annual general meeting in the sport's history this weekend. Scheduled for Sunday in the Ashling Hotel, Dublin, it is believed that a number of clubs will be sending delegates to the meeting who have not been democratically elected by their club's members. If that happens, the new body would be established illegally.

"If there is a constitution and people are elected as directors the thing must be done properly from the very beginning," said barrister Kieron Hann, who is a member of a Belfast swimming club. "If this is wrong at the outset then everything else falls afterwards."

The association stipulated on the basis of the Murphy Report, which urged a more democratic and transparent system, that each club should first hold their own a.g.m. It was intended that each club would discuss the new procedures and structures involved in the planned new organisation, Swim Ireland, and then vote for the members they wished to put forward for election to the new organisation.

The Murphy Report was undertaken following allegations of child sex abuse against a number of swimming coaches and the subsequent jailing of Olympic coach Derry O'Rourke for 12 years last February.

It is now believed that a number of swimming clubs have not held such meetings. In IASA president Mary O'Malley's new year's newsletter she urged clubs to solve this problem and hinted at possible problems later on if they did not.

"To nominate personnel onto the new structure every club MUST (sic) hold an a.g.m. I have been saddened to hear that some clubs will put forward the nominations without going to their full membership. Every member covered in the structure must have a say in the running of the new body for the system to work," said O'Malley.

"It is fine in principle to say `who'll know if we don't hold an a.g.m.?' My answer to that would have to be if something goes wrong in the future the clubs who act in this fashion will know themselves."

O'Malley goes on to say that some clubs have already contacted her to say that they cannot hold their annual meetings in the allotted time.

"Some clubs have told me they cannot arrange an a.g.m. in the time-span allowed," said O'Malley, adding: "Don't just write up nomination sheets, contact the IASA."

It was pointed out by one Ulster member, whose club did not hold an a.g.m., that there is no way of knowing whether delegates are voted in by their clubs. Short of bringing the minutes of their club meetings to Dublin as proof, names will simply appear on lists. If this happens there could be serious implications for Swim Ireland.

"For example, if the correct procedures are not followed at the beginning anyone could seek a judicial review on how people were elected to the new body," said Hann. "You could seek a declaration that the entire matter was void and you could also argue that any decisions made by it in the future are entirely unenforceable.

"There would be no legality about it and it could be overturned by the courts. The fact of the matter is that it is treating democracy with contempt and it is treating people with contempt."

Another clear anomaly is that Swim Ireland could be founded on principles contrary to the Murphy inquiry. The Murphy Report urged that a broader base of people involve themselves in the sport, a point that is clearly ignored if some delegates have simply been nominated by a club committee.

The a.g.m. was originally scheduled for April but was brought forward to January at the behest of the Department of Tourism and Sport.

Nick O'Hare will compete in the Geneva International meet at the weekend, reports Pat Roche.

O'Hare is determined that his training programme, under the guidance of the Hamburg-based coach Dirk Lange, is sustained without the slightest interruption by developments at home.

The Olympic Council of Ireland has agreed to pay for his flights for the Geneva event.

The Dubliner, who had a top 20 world sprint ranking before the European short-course championships in Sheffield in December, has shelved his third-level studies to train full time. Yesterday he declined an offer to represent the Hamburg club in next month's World Cup meet in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Instead, he will compete in the Leisureland international event and confront American John Olsen whom he beat in last year's short-course event in Salthill. After Geneva, O'Hare moves to the high-profile Uster event, outside Zurich, the weekend after next.