AN emphasis on governance and an outline of the events that led to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine putting in four ministerial appointees at Horse Sport Ireland was aired in Dáil Question time recently.

Raising questions in May, Kildare North TD Catherine Murphy (SD) said: “I will move on to Horse Sport Ireland. There was a controversy around a proposed facility which did not go ahead. One of the issues that emerged was that an allocation was made and there were governance issues. Following that controversy, has there been any specific engagement on the matter? It threw up some issues regarding the control the Department has over that grant when it is paid. Horse Sport Ireland appears to have quite a lot of latitude.”

Accounting Officer for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Brendan Gleeson, responded: “Horse Sport Ireland is a very atypical body. It is a company limited by guarantee and a kind of a public-private partnership, if one likes. It is the national body for sport horses but it is not a State body in the usual way. It does have some of the characteristics of a State body.

“The Deputy is right about that controversy. The facility did not go ahead. At the time, we wrote to the chairman and asked him to ensure that whatever he was doing was consistent with public procurement guidelines. There was a doubt about that because leasing property is generally not covered by public procurement. There was a little bit of uncertainty about that but it did not go ahead anyway.

“Some of the funding we give Horse Sport Ireland is for administration and some of it is for breeding programmes. I understood at the time that our funding was not going into that proposal. It was not part of it. Horse Sport Ireland also gets funding from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media for its sporting activities. We fund the breeding elements - the development of breed - and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media funds what used to be the Equestrian Federation of Ireland, that part of it.

“There is a new board in there, so the Deputy will be aware there was also a controversy about the resignation of the board. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has powers now, under an agreement with Horse Sport Ireland, to appoint a chairman and up to four members. We have done that and we selected people with deep experience, particularly governance experience. They are in there now.

“This is something we have to reflect on because I think it is a very good idea to have these partnerships with the sector. Horse Sport Ireland is an important body for the support of the sector, but there are issues we will have to consider in the context of governance because of how atypical it is.”

Diverse organisation

Deputy Murphy replied: “I acknowledge that it is a diverse organisation, with everything from pony clubs to elite sport involved. I accept that, and it requires proper governance.”

Mr Gleeson continued: “One of the things that happened a number of years ago was that we got representations from the sector seeking more support. We said we could have a look at it. There was a cross-sectoral agreement on a strategy called Reaching New Heights. We then said, ‘Fine, if you want more support, we want to look at the governance.’ We then got Indecon to go in and do a governance report, and it made recommendations about the shape of the board and how people would be represented. At the time, there was a 19- or 20-member board. It was enormous. That was important because people wanted to be represented.

“However, it was not how one would shape a board, really, if one was trying to have a functional board. The solution we came up with was to have a smaller board but to have a series of sub-committees on which all of the stakeholders and affiliates would be represented. That is the way it is now. I acknowledge the controversy. It had to do with more than just that specific incident. However, we have put ministerial nominees in there now, and the intention is to consolidate the position of the organisation. We will have a look at it then,” he concluded.