Kinsella removed from Kenmare position

KENMARE Resources has succeeded in removing non-executive director Donal Kinsella from his role as chairman of the company’s audit committee.

The move follows an incident in May involving Mr Kinsella and Kenmare’s company secretary Deirdre Corcoran.

Mr Kinsella, Ms Corcoran and other members of the company were in Mozambique to visit Kenmare’s titanium mine. On the evening of May 9 Mr Kinsella appeared undressed at the bedroom door of Ms Corcoran at the hotel where the executives were staying.

An investigation into the incident was carried out by O’Donnell Sweeney Eversheds, Kenmare’s legal advisers, at the request of chairman Charles Carvill following a complaint by Ms Corcoran.

Mr Kinsella, a well-known businessman who founded the Cooley distillery, says he has made a written apology to Ms Corcoran and the investigators found that was that no harm done and there were extenuating circumstances.

Mr Kinsella says he was sleepwalking at the time and had no memory of the incident, though he accepts it took place.

The report by O’Donnell Sweeney Eversheds was given to Mr Carvill in late June.

Late on Tuesday night Kenmare issued a public statement saying it was holding a board meeting to discuss the removal of Mr Kinsella after he refused to voluntarily step down as chairman of the audit committee.

The company said it was “impossible” for Ms Corcoran, who joined Kenmare in 1999 after working with the development organisation Concern in Ethiopia, to continues to act as secretary of the audit committee.

Kenmare has not sought Mr Kinsella’s resignation as a director of the company. He is deputy chairman of Kenmare and has been with the company since 1987.

In a brief statement yesterday after the emergency board meeting, Kenmare said Mr Kinsella had been removed from the audit committee and replaced by Peter McAleer.

Louth-based Mr Kinsella, 64, is chairman of Irish Edible Oils and Trimproof.

He owns around four million shares in Kenmare.