Ulster Rugby Annual Report 2015 - 2016

assistance and support. I would also like to give my thanks to all the volunteers, staff, supporters, sponsors and other partners who support the professional game and contribute to its success. The IRFU continues to provide significant assistance and financial support to the Professional Game in Ulster and indeed the other Provinces. There is a growing recognition in the IRFU that the Branches need the continued and additional financial support of the Union if they are to remain in and challenge in the knock out stages of Europe. Ulster is now seeing the benefits of investment in its Academy structure with many young players developing into integral parts of the senior side and a greater representation of local players in the successful full Irish and underage representative sides. The Branch is very grateful to the IRFU for this ongoing support. The Domestic Game has had a difficult year due to the ending of the DCAL funding. DCAL funding amounting to almost £0.5m came to an end in March 2015. This led to a restructuring of the Domestic Game staff to better align staff resources with available funding and the development of the domestic game. All costs were kept well under control throughout the year. Regionalisation of the Domestic Game has helped to bring more focus and increased resources to the amateur game and will hopefully bring about more and better players of the game. I would like to thank all the staff within the Branch for their continued excellent work in the domestic game under the enthusiasm, guidance and leadership of Mr Chris Webster, and also all the volunteers who work within the Branch and Club structure in Ulster for giving of their time and expertise to make amateur rugby in Ulster the great game it is. The outlook for the Domestic Game in terms of finance not only for the Branch but also for clubs and schools is challenging. The IRFU has agreed to maintain its support of the domestic game for 2016-17 to enable the continuance of the four regions and this is to be welcomed. It is hoped that more funding will be made available to our sport from government sources in the years to come but this is by no means a certainty Annually the Branch has an Internal Audit carried out in addition to the annual audit of the accounts. The internal audit function has been outsourced to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). In carrying out this work PwC look at all the systems and controls within the Branch on a rolling basis. Their report gives their opinion on the individual systems and controls, an overall opinion on the organisation and makes recommendations for improvements. The two areas reviewed this year were financial controls and professional rugby. This work concluded that the systems achieved a satisfactory assurance rating for financial controls and a substantial rating for professional rugby at the year end. This is the result of considerable efforts and focus on controls by Audrey Robinson, Financial Controller, the finance team and all the staff within the Branch. The annual audit of the Branch’s accounts is once again being performed by Deloitte who carry out this work to a very tight time scale and in a very efficient and professional manner. I would like to express my 30

thanks to both PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte for their help and assistance with this work. The Audit Committee made up of David Workman (Chair), Paul Harte and Hugh Johnston meet to consider these audit reports on behalf of the Branch and I am grateful for their work, support and assistance in this very important area. The Finance Committee has continued its work of managing and scrutinising the financial affairs of the Branch together with making reports and recommendations to other Branch Committees. I am grateful to this committee for all their hard work over the past year which included Gordon Hamilton (IRFU Rep), David Millar (Chairman of the Professional Game Board), John McKibbin (Hon Secretary) and John Boyd (Chairman of the Domestic Game Committee). Shane Logan (Chief Executive) and Audrey Robinson (Financial Controller) also attend meetings of the Finance Committee and their detailed knowledge and understanding of the day to day operations of the Branch is very much appreciated. My thanks also go to Audrey and her team, Joanne Hunter, Liz Lowry, and Janice Gilpin for all their hard work and support throughout the year which has been invaluable. Audrey has always been a source of great insight to the Branch’s finances and never tired of my numerous questions and queries throughout the year. Bobby Stewart, our outgoing President, has had a great year representing the Branch. He has undertaken all his duties with diligence supported by his wife Valerie, and will be an extremely hard act to follow. I wish Bobby all the very best for the future. I welcome John McKibbin as our new President and I know that John, ably supported by his wife Moyra, will relish this incoming year. This is a well deserved appointment for John for his contribution to the game in Ulster and his many years as the Hon Secretary of the Branch – his knowledge of the Branch’s governance issues is second to none. He is someone to whom I have turned on a many occasions to help plot the best course of action on different issues. My thanks also go to Shane Logan who as Chief Executive has led a very successful year at Ulster Branch. I am grateful for Shane’s support which has certainly made my role less difficult than it may otherwise have been. The Management Committee, under the excellent chairmanship of David Dobbin, has continued to make significant progress in 2015/16. The financial outcomes achieved by the Branch are due largely to the strategic and operational decisions taken by this committee. I am very grateful to the support offered from this committee over the last year. Finally I believe Ulster has made further progress in the past year in developing a large number of areas. The challenge is to keep going forward in a sustainable way. This continual development can only be achieved by good people with good ideas and experience working in a very constructive way. The Branch has demonstrated that through the work of the staff and volunteers such real progress is possible and sustainable. . Michael Boyd Honorary Treasurer

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