The State of the Union – the Irish Canoe Union

During August last year I decided I was going to get involved in canoeing and kayaking on a national level. I requested AGM minutes from the ICU; I only received them after months of nagging.

During this time I got the feeling there was something wrong with ICU. I didn’t wait for them to send me the AGM minutes. I went about getting the minutes through other means. But I didn’t stop there. I got their financial statements, along with Sports Council grant applications. Individually they are benign enough (apart from the poor layout and scant detail of the accounts), but together they form a picture.

ICU - Report and Financial statements 1999
ICU - Report and Financial statements 2000
ICU - Report and Financial statements 2001
ICU - Report and Financial statements 2002
ICU - Report and Financial statements 2003
ICU - Report and Financial statements 2004
ICU - Report and Financial statements 2005
ICU - Report and Financial statements 2006

ICU - Report and Financial statements 1999-2006.zip (2.5mb)

I wanted answers, before when I asked questions about the ICU it was called ICU bashing. I have studied these financial statements, ICU documents, letters and applications. I spoke for several hours and had a meeting with the CEO of the ICU and spoken to key members of the kayaking and canoeing community around Ireland, and senior accounts over the past year. I have come to some conclusions and I have lots of recommendations.

ICU Recommendations - Please read them.

I submitted my list of recommendations to the ICU in January of this year. They seemed receptive and open, however very little has happened. No movement has been made on the larger issues and in some cases they expressed opposition to a lot of the points. This is even more frustrating when you consider that a lot of the points I have made coincide with the ICU Strategic Development Plan 2005 – 2009 – Stay, Stay, Succeed. This Development plan is far from being fulfilled.

The ICU is broken and unfortunately it doesn’t hold the bright future that it could have.

The Irish Canoe Union's AGM will take place on Saturday, October 18th in Finnstown House, Lucan, Co. Dublin at 3:00 pm. I would ask all kayakers and canoeist to attend so that they may partake in the advancement of the Union and participate in the discussion about the problems we face these days.

ICU AGM Notice and Info about motions

Update (20/9): The ICU has just added the names and contact details for the elected ICU executive here...it only took them 8 months..