AN EGM convened by members of the Connemara Pony Breeders Society (CPBS) is going ahead, despite the fact the council of the society is refusing to accept its legitimacy.

A requisition calling for the EGM was made on April 16th along with the signatures of over 480 members. According to the articles of association of the CPBS, this would legally compel the council to have called an EGM by May 8th.

The EGM will deal with a motion to remove three sitting members of the council and to reverse recent changes made to the pony inspection process.

The council, however, communicated with members that it had evidence a number of the signatures were illegitimate and that any EGM based on the requisition would be illegitimate. The Breeders Support Group behind the EGM vehemently refute this and have called on the council, as has The Irish Field, to provide the number of illegitimate signatures as well as the purported evidence of same to no avail.

This week, the council sent another email to members restating it’s position on the matter.

“The council is aware, that notwithstanding the irregularities appearing on the Requisition, certain members have advertised in the national press, that they intend to hold a purported EGM on June 28th next at the Claregalway Hotel, Galway,” the email states.

“It is the position of Council that the convening of a purported EGM on foot of an invalid Requisition is itself (self-evidently), invalid. Additionally, any purported resolution(s) passed at any such meeting will be invalid and ineffectual. The Council will not (and cannot) recognise the lawfulness of any such EGM and it has communicated this to representatives of the nominal organiser.”

Legal rights

The Breeders Support Group said it “regards the latest email from the CPBS to its membership as completely misleading”.

“It is our opinion that certain members of the CPBS Council have wrongly sought to dispute the validity of the Requisition in an unlawful attempt to frustrate the members of the Society in exercising their legal rights as members to convene an EGM of the Society,” a statement sent this week reads.

“We also believe that the actions of the Society in refusing to allow members of the public and members of the Society to inspect the Society’s register of members are similarly motivated.

Compliance

“As previously reported this group, through its solicitor, have formally called on the Society to identify the names of the signatories to the EGM Requisition that the Society assert are invalid but the Society have failed to do so.

“The EGM has been convened in compliance with the Society’s Constitution, despite the Society’s failure to comply with its legal obligations under Sections 178, 216, and 223 of the Companies Act, 2014. The EGM will go ahead as scheduled in the Claregalway Hotel on June 28th at 8pm and the Society will be legally obliged to recognise the meeting and its outcome. We look forward to a large attendance of concerned breeders on the evening.”