Confusion surrounds departure of Greyhound Racing Ireland's CEO

Less than two weeks ago Ms O'Brien (pictured) had informed the Public Accounts Committee that both she and Mr Nyhan would not be available to appear at the PAC in mid-September due to the proposed dates clashing with the Irish Greyhound Derby semi-finals and finals, and suggested a date towards the end of that month instead. Picture: Brendan Gleeson

Confusion surrounds the resignation of Greyhound Racing Ireland’s chief executive, Dearbhla O'Brien, after just eight months in the role, with sources suggesting Ms O’Brien “just hadn’t been a good fit”.

The Irish Examiner revealed on Wednesday that Ms O’Brien had tendered her resignation to GRI effective September 30, having taken over the post in January of this year. However, little official insight has been forthcoming to date regarding the reasons for her departure.

“I think both sides realised it wasn’t a good fit,” one industry source said.

“She had come from a clean, organised, structured sector to the greyhounds, which frankly is a bit of a mess with hard decisions needing to be made in terms of strategy.” Concerns have been raised in recent months about falling attendances.

Ms O’Brien is the former CEO of WorkandTravel.ie, a student travel website, and previously worked in the same sector as managing director of Usit Ireland from 2010. Attempts to contact her were not successful.

Chair of GRI Frank Nyhan previously confirmed that Ms O’Brien is to leave her post, saying that he believes she is “is following an offer back to her previous business, the travel business”.

Her decision to leave the GRI role, which had a salary of €151,000 including pension contributions in 2020, appears to have been a sudden one.

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Less than two weeks ago Ms O'Brien had informed the Public Accounts Committee that both she and Mr Nyhan would not be available to appear at the PAC in mid-September due to the proposed dates clashing with the Irish Greyhound Derby semi-finals and finals, and suggested a date towards the end of that month instead.

Lynn Boylan, a Sinn Féin senator who questioned Ms O’Brien at the Oireachtas agriculture committee in May, expressed her surprise at the resignation news, given the CEO’s “enthusiastic” approach to that appearance.

Ms Boylan said:

She had talked about changing the sport’s fortunes, and turning the page. It is a bit strange for her to be walking away so soon.

“It is important maybe to hear from her as to her reasons. If she had gone in looking to reform and has left early that would be concerning. Has this happened because of issues of financial viability or is it about the culture?” she asked, making reference to Ms O’Brien’s recent refusal to divulge attendance figures at GRI’s Shelbourne Park stadium in Dublin due to issues of “commercial sensitivity”.

The Department of Agriculture said GRI is “a body corporate and a separate legal entity”. A spokesperson said that “in that regard the recruitment of executives, including the chief executive, is a matter for (GRI)”.

A spokesperson for GRI confirmed Ms O’Brien had informed the board this week of her decision to step down. They added that an interim CEO will be appointed ahead of her departure date, with an open recruitment process for a permanent replacement to “get under way in the coming weeks”.