IT REMAINS unclear if the Connemara Pony Breeders Society (CPBS) will call an EGM, despite a petition from over 400 members calling for it to do so.

The petition, containing 483 signatures, was delivered to the Society’s council on April 16th and, according to its constitution, the deadline for an EGM to be called would have been Wednesday, May 8th.

The petition called for the EGM to deal with motions to remove three members of the council and to reverse a recent decision to change the pony inspection process.

At the time of print, no EGM had been called and the CPBS had not responded to our questions on the matter, however it had twice sent emails to the signatories of the petition. The first email prompted them to state whether they had personally signed the petition and did so in support of the two resolutions.

The link to do this was later removed with a subsequent email stating the reason for this was that it had been shared outside the intended group. In that later email, sent on Wednesday, the CPBS again asked the signatories to confirm if they personally signed the petition.

A number of members who felt this action was inappropriate sought legal advice after which a solicitor’s letter was sent to the CPBS.

This letter, which was sighted by The Irish Field, contended that the actions of the Society in so communicating with members was “inappropriate, highly irregular and an abuse of power by those who are responsible for such communication” and stated that “should the Council fail to convene the EGM in accordance with the Requisition, for any reason, including a failure by any members of the Society to respond to the communications from the Society, the Council will be in breach of their obligations under the Society’s Constitution and company law”.

The letter also contended that a number of members of the Society have attended the registered office of the society in Clifden and sought to exercise their statutory right to inspect the register of members of the Society and were refused access.

It went on to say: “This is a breach of Section 216 of the Companies Act, 2014. Should the Society fail to furnish a copy of such register to any member so requesting same in accordance with Section 216 aforesaid, that person will be in breach of company law.

“Finally, please note that if the Society or any of the Council members seek to interfere with the statutory rights of our clients, as members of the Society, we have been instructed to make a formal complaint to the Office of Corporate Enforecment with a request that legal action be taken for breach of company law.”

A statement from Fiona Grimes on behalf of the Breeders Support Group sent to The Irish Field on Friday said: “As the 21-day deadline has now passed without any satisfactory response, we are proceeding with plans to hold the EGM independently.

“It is both unacceptable and deeply troubling that the council appears to be obstructing members’ legitimate right to request an EGM - and by ignoring the statutory rights of the Society to its members, apart from constituting a breach of company law, can only be regarded as a concerted effort to frustrate the members in the exercise of our legal rights as members of the Society.”