Rowing Ireland CEO Carpenter remains on leave  

Michelle Carpenter’s role as chief executive was taken over on February 1st on an interim basis by Matt McKerrow

Michelle Carpenter, CEO of Rowing Ireland. Picture: Matt Browne/Sportsfile

Rowing Ireland CEO Michelle Carpenter, who was unable to attend January’s Oireachtas committee meeting to discuss athlete welfare in the sport’s high-performance programme, remains on leave until the middle of March.

Carpenter’s role as chief executive was taken over on February 1st on an interim basis by Matt McKerrow. A former CEO of both Triathlon Ireland and Cycling Ireland, he took on the post of head of governance and planning in the rowing body last summer.

Chair of the Joint Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport, Alan Kelly TD, revealed at the time of the meeting that he had been mailed that morning by solicitors acting for Rowing Ireland to explain that Carpenter would not be attending.

“Unprecedented,” he called it.

He also told how the clerk of the committee had received a call from Carpenter that morning, “which we will not be going into”, and that the same person had contacted the chair and vice-chair Senator Evanne Ni Chuilinn by email.

Ní Chuilinn added during the meeting that she had also received texts and calls from the CEO the night before who, she said, was “seeking what I can only describe as my confidence and support in relation to the hearing”.

Rowing Ireland’s chair, Barry McWilliams, apologised to the committee for Carpenter’s absence on the day, saying she was unwell.

Rowing Ireland, when asked by the Irish Examiner if an investigation had been held about the communications, said they had been reviewed but that they could not comment further as it related to “an individual staff member and internal employment processes”.

Ni Chuilinn also called for a “truly independent, external, safe reporting system” for athletes in rowing’s high-performance system. Government ministers proposed an independent review of the safeguarding process, procedures and timelines relating to the rowing issue.

Rowing Ireland has said that athlete welfare remains a priority, and that a number of “additional supports” have been put in place in recent months to allow athletes to raise concerns through independent channels.

“Rowing Ireland will fully cooperate with the independent review requested by the Minister for Sport and will engage constructively with any recommendations that follow,” a statement from the body said.