Governance

Rowing Ireland is governed by a voluntary Board of Directors. The Board is advised by a number of expert committees and is responsible for the overall control and strategic direction of our organisation.

There are four Board Sub-Committees that report directly to the Board on a regular basis:

• Audit & Risk Committee
• Governance Committee
• Remuneration Committee
• Nominations Committee

Board meetings take place approximately every six weeks. The CEO attends meetings of the Board but is not a Director of the Company.

At executive level, there is an operational structure in place which contains a number of operational committees, each of which report directly to the CEO.

Rowing Ireland is registered on the Sport Ireland website as an organisation fully compliant with the code as of 2023 Sport Ireland governance register of organisation 2023 Rowing Ireland submitted the governance code in January 2019 and became fully compliant with the Governance Code of Ireland in March of that year. The Board adopted the Governance Code in May 2023, in line with required three-yearly update. At this time they made a Public Statement of Compliance which states “we have completed the process as set out for a Type C organisation and now comply with the principles and practices of the Governance Code for a three-year period commencing June 2023″.

We will continue to operate to the best practice standards as set out in the Governance Code adopted by the Board. Rowing Ireland is committed to term limits for Board and Committee members; in particular principle 4 “Working effectively”.

The Sport Ireland Code of Governance can be found here

Rowing Ireland Complaints Officer

All complaints received are processed by the CEO and, if deemed valid, are referred to the Rowing Ireland Complaints Officer, Niall Geaney. Niall is an experienced Sports Regulatory, Disciplinary, and Contracts Law advisor with a strong background in governance and ethics across a wide range of sports.

He serves as a legal consultant to various sports governing bodies and athletes, offering expertise in national and European law, regulation interpretation, and commercial aspects of sports. Niall’s extensive experience includes roles such as Vice President of the FIA CCAP Panel Judge and positions on disciplinary and complaints panels for Golf Ireland, the Community Games, and the Football Association of Ireland.

The present Chair of the Disciplinary committee is Rosie Bell.

Rowing Ireland is currently also updating its complaints policy and hope to publish a new system and policy in Q1 2025