THE issues of corporate governance and High Performance budgets was to the fore when the major affiliates of Horse Sport Ireland appeared before the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine on Wednesday.

Chair of Dressage Ireland, Marguerite Kavanagh, told the committee that difficulty in getting sight of budgets is impacting their High Performance programme. Asked to outline the affiliates’ position regarding financial transparency and dealing with Horse Sport Ireland, Kavanagh said: “We give a financial contribution to High Performance (HP), which is currently running like a 2:1 model so HSI also contribute to the programme. Since 2019, we have contributed €100,000 which should have released €300,000 into HP.”

She continued: “We have had difficulty in getting budgets approved or actually getting sight of budgets; that has really impacted our High Performance programme. We haven’t had approved budgets for a couple of years.

“More often than not, we get actual spend. The spend is no good if the horse has already bolted; we need to be kept in the loop as to where the money is going because we have members that we are accountable to.”

Kavanagh added: “When we do get sight of the HP figures, there is an extraordinary amount – three quarters - of the budget going towards High Performance director fees; that leaves only a quarter then for the athletes. There is a huge expenditure getting to Europe, riders are really struggling. We need to give them the financial support; if we don’t get sight of budgets, we can’t plan.”

Clarity needed

Representing Para Equestrian Ireland, Karen Reilly echoed Kavanagh’s statement. “We are a charity, we have to fundraise all our money. Clear outlines of forecasts for budgets is hugely important. We have only 47 members.

“We have a (high performance) contribution of €10,000 a year that we have to pay to HSI. In 2021 our membership was only €550, in 2022 it was €665, and this year it has increased to €1,110. We, as a charity, need clarity of budgets to help us fundraise and plan the year so we can make a clear contribution to HSI and we are just not getting that from HSI at the moment. Asking 47 members to come up to €10,000 a year is a big ask for us.”

Chair of Eventing Ireland, Niki Potterton, said: “Eventing Ireland put in about €70,000-€80,000 into the HP fund, we get twice that back to spend. Where we see the issue – we put in the €80,000 but that is where it stops, we then have no influence on where that money goes. We feel we would like to be more involved; we are a one-third shareholder in the money in our HP budget but yet we have no input into it. We would just like a bit more clarity.”

On behalf of Showjumping Ireland, chair of the management and finance committee, Ronan Corrigan, said that up until last year, through the levy scheme, SJI contributed over €100,000 a year towards High Performance.

Corrigan commented: “A major concern across all disciplines, of the money that comes from Sport Ireland, is that very little if any finds its way to athletes, owners, producers. It is predominately used for the payment, and it is a necessary payment, of HP chef d’equipes. We need a review to look at how it’s being spent.”