Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I thank all our guests for very forthright and helpful contributions. As I said at the beginning, this has been a very important element of the process of restoring trust in Cycling Ireland and its governance structures. We can go forward from today with a hugely greater degree of confidence in how exactly those governance issues are being addressed and will be addressed in future. I am delighted to hear the velodrome is becoming - I hope, I think - a reality at long last. I recall visiting New Zealand with our ambassador there about two years ago. We were brought to one of its two national velodromes and met two renowned, world-class track cycling coaches who happened to be Irish but were basing themselves there because it was the only place they could get a role or function with their coaching skills. To be able to attract that kind of talent home again and to develop our locally home-grown talent would be a really exciting time in Irish cycling. I wish Dr. Daly and the board of Cycling Ireland every success in getting that under way as quickly as possible.

In conclusion, I was not casting any aspersions, and apologies if it sounded that way, on the cycling pedigrees of either of guests from Cycling Ireland, because those are very substantial and honourable. Dr. Daly explained earlier the appointment process to the board but I am thinking about the optics of this. I argue that in an organisation as large as Cycling Ireland and that has as large a national footprint, there always needs to be some sort of mechanism so the 25,000 members have a say, although many of them do not turn up to meetings. We have our AGM in Seven Springs Cycling Club in Loughrea every year and out of I think 90 members 25 turn up and the rest pay their sub and say that is all they are doing. The commitment was made to go on further than that and it is welcome but there needs to be perhaps some mechanism whereby the 25,000 members would have a role or what we might describe as a voice on the board. Granted all board members are a voice for cycling and they have all risen up through the ranks from their local cycling clubs but I just think that is important from a perception point of view on an ongoing basis.

As I said, I thank both of the Cycling Ireland guests for the work, for stepping into the breach and doing incredibly important work in restoring that trust and providing a really strong, solid foundation for the future of cycling in Ireland.