THE CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board has left his role a year on from going on voluntary leave over a financial issue of “grave concern” in the organisation’s accounts.

The IHRB has been under the spotlight in recent times after it informed the Public Accounts Committee in June last year that its CFO Donal O’Shea had gone on “voluntary leave” after the issue emerged.

In a statement to The Journal, the IHRB confirmed the CFO’s departure. It’s understood he left last Friday.

“I can confirm that Mr O’Shea has tendered his resignation and no longer works for the IHRB,” a spokesperson said.

In July last year, IHRB chief executive CEO Darragh O’Loughlin told TDs in the Public Accounts Committee that it was a “bombshell” revelation for the organisation and had arisen only hours before he entered the committee room in Leinster House.

At a later PAC hearing, O’Loughlin said the transaction did “not appear” to be related to the misappropriation of funds or personal gain.

Last month, TDs heard that O’Shea voluntarily going on leave was linked to the IHRB receiving a transfer of €350,000 from a charitable fund for injured jockeys, before then repaying the charity the money only months later.

In the IHRB annual report released in recent weeks, a note provided by Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy stated that “concerns arose” in June 2023 about the “financial governance of those transactions”, leading to an independent external review.

The accounts outline how, in January 2022, the transfer of €350,000 was made from the Jockeys Emergency Fund to the IHRB, but was “subsequently reversed” three months later in April 2022.

IHRB’s boss Darragh O’Loughlin said the €350,000 transfer was an “isolated incident” and that a “detailed scrutiny” of transactions over the past six years had taken place, showing no further incidents of note.