Irish dancing’s most prestigious governing body recorded losses of more than €1 million last year as it dealt with the fall-out from the global scandal of alleged cheating in competitions.
Annual accounts for An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha (CLRG) in 2022 show its finances are reeling from the alleged "feis-fixing" scandal.
The body recorded losses of €1,008,000 last year – almost halving the CLRG’s total members’ funds. The loss followed CLRG recording a comparatively modest surplus of €41,854 in 2021.
The new accounts filed with the Companies Office show the CLRG’s financial woes have continued since December, with a note stating that projections to May 31st indicate further losses of €702,500 unless specific steps are taken.
The CLRG’s assets would then exceed its liabilities by €390,233 “which would place some pressure on the company’s cash flow,” the note adds.
The €1 million loss last year reduced the CLRG’s members' funds from €2.1 million to €1.09 million.
A spokesman for CLRG said on Friday that “CLRG remains on a sound financial footing with strong reserves.”
The CLRG’s cash reserves increased from €1.73 million to €1.92 million at the end of December last year.
The CLRG spokesman said: “Despite a challenging period, the outlook for the coming year is positive as CLRG continues to address the difficult issues it has faced and embarks on a new period of change and strengthened governance across all structures of the organisation.”
Expected legal costs
The chief factor behind the €1 million loss arises from CLRG providing for the cost of expected legal and professional services to deal with allegations of wrongdoing at Irish dancing competitions.
Under the heading of "accruals" in the creditors section of the accounts, the CLRG had a total of €879,229 for 2022 compared to €52,155 for 2021.
The spokesman said: “Following the emergence of allegations of wrongdoing at Irish dancing competitions in late 2022, a significant accrual was made to account for expected legal and professional services fees in 2023 and beyond.”
More than 40 people are facing allegations of cheating after the global scandal in Irish dancing emerged last year. It is understood that a number of Irish dancing teachers and judges accused of so-called feis-fixing have been cleared by disciplinary hearings.
The scandal emerged after screenshots were leaked online of text conversations purporting to show judges and teachers arranging the results of competitions before they were held.
The CLRG has already confirmed that the first disciplinary hearings commenced in late August and is to provide a statement once all hearings have been completed.
The Irish dancing body was earlier forced to lift the suspensions of all of those accused of cheating following one successful High Court case.
