CoAction is seeking a new chief

SERVICE provider CoAction is seeking to recruit a new chief executive following the double resignation of two former ceos in 2023.

Gobnait Ní Chrualaoí resigned from the board in January 2023, and her replacement Neil Ashworth submitted his letter of resignation in the final month of 2023.

CoAction, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, had been embroiled in controversy over a proposal to move its child and family service out of a community-funded building in a bid to meet approved housing needs.

That proposal did not proceed, but both ceos cited challenges in their working relationships with the board of trustees.

Since its foundation by a group of parents and friends in Bantry in 1974, CoAction has been providing vital disability services at its five bases of operation in Bantry, Castletownbere, Skibbereen, Dunmanway, and Clonakilty.

Today, CoAction employs 280 people, providing a range of supports for 700 children and 160 adults.

CoAction is hoping to recruit ‘a strong people leader to evolve the charity’s operating model, address staffing challenges, and restore services to meet the needs of its service users and their families’, it has stated.

The board said the new ceo will be supported by a leadership team in a bid to ‘turn around a significant local charity which is currently dealing with the issues facing the social care sector nationally’.

CoAction is also currently recruiting for a number of other key positions ranging from head of finance to social care professionals and other frontline staff.