- Fianna Fáil candidate Jim Gavin withdrew from the presidential election on Sunday night
- It comes after questions were raised about an allegation that a former tenant of his mistakenly overpaid €3,300 in rent for an apartment he previously owned and was never paid back
- Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher, whose Áras bid was rejected, says Gavin’s candidacy a ‘serious miscalculation’
- Fianna Fáil’s director of elections for the presidential campaign Jack Chambers signals support for Martin and says rental dispute was never disclosed
- The move leaves just two candidates – left wing Independent TD Catherine Connolly and Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys
Key Reads
- Fintan O’Toole: What on earth was Micheál Martin thinking? Jim Gavin clearly wasn’t ready
- Analysis: What next for Micheál Martin, Fianna Fáil and the election?
- Connolly seen as the front-runner and Humphreys faces scrutiny: Five takeaways from Sunday’s presidential debate
- Join The Irish Times WhatsApp channel and never miss an update
FF minister not aware what transpired in relation to TV debate
Minister for Children, Disability and Equality Norma Foley has said there is “enormous disappointment” within Fianna Fáil over Jim Gavin’s failed presidential bid.
Foley also said she wasn’t aware what transpired over the weekend in relation to Gavin’s participation in the presidential television debate on Sunday.
Fianna Fáil deputy leader Jack Chambers said earlier the party had been contacted by Gavin’s former tenant on Saturday who gave information that the party had not been given by the former GAA manager.
Gavin said during the TV debate on Sunday that he was “looking into the matter” over an allegation that a tenant in a property he previously owned was not refunded €3,300 in mistakenly overpaid rent.
“I’m not aware of what transpired there,” Foley told RTÉ Radio’s News at One this afternoon. “I have been in Dublin all weekend. I’m here again today, negotiating the budget.
“I would assume, and I can’t say because I’m not privy to it, but I would assume that the opportunity was given to Jim Gavin to come forward with his side of the story and when it became abundantly clear that he couldn’t stand up that side of the story, he made the decision, which was the correct decision.”
The Minister said from a personal and human point of view, she was “very saddened” and also conscious Gavin and his family were at the centre of the controversy.
However, she said “if money is owed, it must be paid back”.
“There is absolutely no question about that,” she added.
Foley also defended her party’s selection process and said it had been in place for a considerable amount of time.
She said it was a secret ballot in which parliamentary party members were “fully entitled to vote whatever way they wanted” and was a “fully democratic process”.
The Minister said it was “absolutely not true at all” that she was frogmarched out to support Gavin. Foley said she would now take time to consider who to vote for on October 24th but that she knew Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys “very well” and is the candidate “that I know best”.
“I’ve worked with her [Humphreys]. I like Heather,” she said. “I recognise Catherine Connolly as a parliamentarian also, who has many elections under her belt.”
‘Embarrassing moment with many in party frustrated’, says Fianna Fáil TD
Behind closed doors and privately on phone calls, many people in the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party are frustrated, Cork North Central TD Pádraig O’Sullivan has said.
The Fianna Fáil TD said he looked on with “disdain” as senior members of the party were frogmarched out to declare support for a person that “many of them hadn’t even met or knew nothing about”.
O’Sullivan said while he had great sympathy for Jim Gavin, he didn’t believe the former GAA manager was prepared for what was ahead of him. The TD publicly backed MEP Billy Kelleher during Fianna Fáil’s nomination process.
“I just feel that during the process, we were told that the presidency was above politics and that we need to look outside of politicians,” he told RTÉ Radio’s News at One.
“But it’s clearly been demonstrated that one of the most fundamental characteristics of any good presidential run, a good presidential candidate, is that political experience.”
O’Sullivan said there had to be “collective responsibility” in relation to the campaign and that it was “an embarrassing moment” for the party.
He said sometimes within the parliamentary party there was a “top-down approach”.
“I genuinely feel if there was a more open airing of and more positive discussions, we might actually be able to collectively arrive at the right decisions,” he said.
The TD also said it was now a critical moment for the party, about defining its future, and that the grassroots and parliamentary party had to be heard from.
He added: “The people that came out publicly for Jim Gavin and some of them, I know, had misgivings. They now need to reflect on their own position in this, in so far as should they have done things differently? “Should they have questioned more? Should there have been a proper hustings?”
Micheál Martin is a “dictator” and he should step down after Jim Gavin’s disastrous presidential election campaign, a Fianna Fáil local councillor has claimed.
Loughrea councillor Michael Regan also said party headquarters should follow.
Speaking to Galway Talks radio, he said Jim Gavin was never the popular choice, and many other highly qualified candidates who have given years of service were ignored.
Regan said the Fianna Fáil leader had to go.
Even before Jim Gavin’s presidential campaign imploded on Sunday, it was shadowed by one very big unanswered question, writes Fintan O’Toole.
It was not the ultimately fatal one about his behaviour as a former landlord. It was more basic than that: what on Earth was Micheál Martin thinking?
The full piece can be read here.
Jim Gavin’s name will stay on the ballot paper despite his withdrawal from the race, it is understood.
Harry McGee reports: The returning officer for the presidential election, Barry Ryan, will meet legal experts this afternoon to seek clarity on the situation.
Minister for Housing and Local Government James Browne, who made the order for the election, has no power to remove names.
Tomorrow is the last day to register to ensure you can vote in the presidential election on October 24th.
You can check if you’re on the register at checktheregister.ie
The national executive committee (NEC) of Mandate Trade Union, which represents more than 20,000 bar and retail workers across the country, has decided to endorse Catherine Connolly’s candidature for president of Ireland.
In making its decision on Sunday, the NEC cited Connolly’s stance on collective bargaining and workers’ rights.
On foot of the decision, the union said it will be making direct contact with all of its members urging them to give their No 1 vote to Connolly on October 24th.
Party will learn from failed campaign, says Minister
Minister for Transport, Climate, Energy and the Environment Darragh O’Brien has said Fianna Fáil will “learn” from its failed presidential campaign.
He also said Micheál Martin enjoys “the full support” of the parliamentary party. The Minister said “we’re lucky to have him but there have been issues.”
Mr O’Brien said his party’s presidential campaign and selection process would be discussed at a meeting of the parliamentary party “in a considered way”.
“We will come to a decision as a collective, as we always do,” he said.
The Fingal East TD said although he did vote for the former GAA manager Jim Gavin as the party’s candidate, he had made the right decision to stand down.
He described it as “a disappointing situation” that Fianna Fáil would “learn from and move on from”.
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín has said the presidential race is turning into an “omnishambles”.
“This is now the shortest ballot in modern times. There is a complete lack of democratic choice available to the people,” he said.
The Meath West TD said you have to go back to 1973, 52 years ago, to find “a field as narrow for a contested presidential election”.
“Hundreds of thousands of voters are without a candidate in this election. Running a competitive democratic election is key to the health of a democracy in normal times. But in these polarised times it is critical to show that the political system works,” he added.
Minister of State Niall Collins has also described the party’s failed presidential campaign as “hugely disappointing”.
“There’s no two ways about it,” he told RTÉ Radio 1’s Today with Claire Byrne. “To find ourselves as the largest party in Government, largest party at local government and in the middle of the presidential campaign our candidate has withdrawn. There’s no sugar-coating it – it’s a really disappointing moment for everybody associated with Fianna Fáil.”
Collins said he believed party leader Micheál Martin would be the most disappointed at what had happened and would take “his share of responsibility in relation to this”.
“He’s [Martin] not a shrinking violet. By any yardstick or by any measure, Micheál Martin is a very substantial politician and most of the time he gets things right,” said Collins.
The Limerick TD said there would be a serious examination of what unfolded and that “unfortunately our candidate has crashed out”. He said the method by which the party selects its presidential candidate had to change.
‘I wouldn’t like to hear Jim Gavin being thrown under the bus’ – MEP Barry Andrews
Dublin MEP Barry Andrews has said he would not like to hear “Jim Gavin being thrown under the bus” and the debacle had been a “fiasco” for the party.
Andrews said he listened to Jack Chambers’s Morning Ireland interview earlier where he “sort of implied that the party was misled”.
“I think that’s unfortunate,” he told RTÉ Radio 1’s Today with Claire Byrne. “I would rather that we had a proper discussion about this at the parliamentary party. I think we have to have an opportunity to reflect on what went wrong.”
Andrews acknowledged that Gavin had made a mistake which he was now going to fix in relation to the rental deposit.
He said his party’s selection process for its presidential candidate was “wrong” and there had to be much more “socialising” of the process.
He described Gavin as a formidable candidate and he wasn’t sure his party had carried out the appropriate due diligence.
Andrews added that Fianna Fáil hadn’t “covered ourselves in glory in the process”. He said the selection process that unfolded over the summer was completely inadequate, which he wasn’t happy with. However, Andrews said that the events did not impact Micheál Martin’s leadership. He said he would be voting for Heather Humphreys in the election now.
A number of Fianna Fáil TDs have expressed strong criticism that the party leader Micheál Martin and senior colleagues showed a lack of judgment and did not carry out appropriate due diligence when selecting Jim Gavin as their preferred candidate.
Several have also privately criticised Minister for Finance Jack Chambers’s interview with RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland on Monday, all saying that the party deputy leader had effectively “thrown Jim Gavin under the bus” by saying he had not informed the party about a dispute with a former tenant over a €3,300 payment, and there was a contradiction between what Mr Gavin said on Friday about the issue, and what emerged with “absolute veracity” on Saturday about it.
Harry McGee reports: A small number of TDs also complained that Mr Martin emailed them on Sunday night to convey the news that Mr Gavin was withdrawing from the race, using the exact same text that was issued in the party press release. It is understood that the Taoiseach is contacting all members of the parliamentary party individually on Monday to discuss the issue.
Cork North Central TD Páidí O’Sullivan said that one issue was about the level of due diligence carried out by the party.
“Frogmarching senior people out at the behest of the leader to support Jim Gavin was a sight that I never thought I would see,” he said.
“I flagged all those concerns. We wanted a contest. We wanted a fair contest, and we certainly didn’t get one. And if we had a fair and stringent contest, you know, we could have teased all these issues out. We could tease out the actual strengths and weaknesses of both candidates, including the Taoiseach’s preferred nominee.
“I think there’s a serious lack of judgment here and due diligence wasn’t done.”
Galway West TD John Connolly said that if there had been a clearer process from the start, Fianna Fáil would not be where it is now.
“I highlighted Jim Gavin’s lack of experience when I spoke to the Taoiseach. He reassured me that he was a fine man and had done great work
“I said to him we don’t know how he will perform in politics. He reassured me that he would be able to handle the political sphere. He mentioned Mary McAleese in 1997.
“Never waste a good crisis. We have to look at the way we select candidates and the decision-making process,” he said.
Erin McGreehan, who represents Louth, said it was deeply upsetting for Fianna Fáil members that it had no candidate.
“After having a very successful local election, and a very successful general election, that’s deeply upsetting.”
TDs who spoke privately were split on the implications it would have for the party and for the leadership of Mr Martin. All agreed it was a serious issue, although ministers were of the view it would have no long-term consequences.
“We can do nothing now other than try to regroup,” said one Minister privately. “There’ll be some cathartic moments for the next week or two. I just think things will have to try to be settled back down again.
“Micheál miscalculated this one unfortunately, by putting so much faith in Jim Gavin. But he has got virtually everything right along the way. I think we’ve got to accept what’s happened and look at this in the round. Okay, people are very sore and hot this morning, but I think we actually look at the bigger picture.”
However, some backbenchers described what had happened as a calamity and one that could have been foreseen.
“When Micheál rang me to vote for Jim, I told him Gavin would need to gear himself up and make himself a bit more exciting because he is boring. I had met him before and I could not believe it was the same Jim Gavin who brought Dublin to five All-Irelands.”
A number of TDs also suggested that the party’s senior figures were “pulling back” from Mr Gavin over the past number of days.
“The Taoiseach needs to take responsibility for it. He needs to say, I got it wrong. I apologise to the party. I don’t think he has that in him, though.”
Another TD said he was not impressed with the way that leadership was now responding. “We can see the way the wagons are circling, and Gavin has been thrown under the bus. It’s in poor taste.”
A number of TDs and senators have called for the party’s parliamentary party meeting to be brought forward to tonight as a matter of urgency but the meeting is still scheduled to be held on Wednesday.
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy has said the withdrawal of Jim Gavin from the presidential election clarifies the nature of the campaign.
“It is now a straight choice between a Fine Gael former minister, Heather Humphreys and a leading Independent Opposition TD, Catherine Connolly,” he said.
“People have a choice between a candidate who stands up for the developers and corporate landlords who have profited from Fine Gael’s and Fianna Fáil’s disastrous housing policy and a candidate who stands up for those who suffer from this housing crisis,” he said.
“It is a clear choice between a Fine Gael candidate who supports the Government’s moves to scrap the Triple Lock and fundamentally undermine neutrality and a candidate who defends neutrality. It is a choice between a Fine Gael candidate who suggested that the Occupied Territories Bill won’t make any difference and a candidate who has been consistent for decades in opposing Israeli occupation.”
Jack Chambers, the party’s deputy leader and director of elections, told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that the party had been contacted by Mr Gavin’s former tenant on Saturday who gave information that the party had not been given by Mr Gavin.
As a monumental blame game gets under way in Fianna Fáil, Mr Chambers – a key ally of Taoiseach and party leader Micheál Martin – sought to divert blame away from the party leadership, writes Pat Leahy.
He said that when the party received questions about the issue, Mr Gavin said that he had “no record or recollection” of the events.
However, on Saturday, he said, the former tenant of Mr Gavin’s contacted the party and said he had records relating to the issue. This was, he said, “contrary to what the party had been told on Friday”.
It quickly became clear that it was a “very serious issue”.
“Over the weekend, it was clear that there was absolute veracity to what the tenant had said and Jim then retrieved partial records, which confirmed that this was an issue,” Mr Chambers told RTÉ.
However, Mr Chambers and Mr Martin are likely to face demands for answers from their own party about why a more thorough due diligence process was not completed with Mr Gavin that might have uncovered the controversy.
The party also faces the question of what it will advise its voters to do, given Mr Gavin’s withdrawal.
These questions are facing Mr Chambers and other senior figures on what is the perhaps the busiest and most pressurised few days of the political year, as they seek to finalise tomorrow’s budget.
Jack Chambers signals support for Martin and says rental dispute was never disclosed
Fianna Fáil’s director of elections for the presidential campaign, Jack Chamber, has said there “is still and will continue to be significant and unanimous support” for Michéal Martin as leader of the party.
The Fianna Fáil deputy leader said there was a “clear contradiction” between what the party was initially told on Friday about the tenant dispute involving Jim Gavin and what later emerged.
A former tenant of Mr Gavin said that he had mistakenly overpaid €3,300 in rent for an apartment the former GAA manager previously owned and was never paid back the money.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland, Mr Chambers said the matter was “never disclosed” to the party and it was a serious issue and that Mr Gavin had made the right decision in stepping down.
He said the tenant contacted the party on Saturday and told them they had records relating to the issue, contrary to what the party was saying to the media.
“Over the weekend it was clear that there was absolutely veracity to what the tenant had said and Jim then retrieved partial records which confirmed that this was an issue and obviously the contradiction between what was said on Friday and what emerged reflects the seriousness of this,” the Dublin West TD said.
Mr Chambers added there was extensive and robust due diligence prior to and during Mr Gavin’s candidacy and full engagement on any issue that could arise.
He said party headquarters undertakes that process very thoroughly and there is a candidate pledge which underpins this.
Mr Chambers said the party would have to review and reflect on the wider campaign and was extremely disappointed “like many in the party”.
He also said Mr Martin would “absolutely” have the support of the party right through and beyond the transfer of the office of Taoiseach in November 2027.
“I believe he will continue to have the full support of our parliamentary party, and he’s someone who strengthened the party’s mandate in the last general election.
“He’s providing continued service and leadership in Government and that’s what’s central to his role as leader of our party, but also as leader of our country.”
The Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher – who unsuccessfully contested the party’s nomination for the presidential election, losing out to Jim Gavin – has said that the party will have to have a “full discussion” on the “very serious miscalculation” that saw Gavin selected as the party’s candidate.
Mr Kelleher pointedly avoided expressing confidence in Micheál Martin, saying that the future leadership was a “discussion for another day”, writes Pat Leahy.
With Gavin’s candidacy having imploded so spectacularly, the fallout in Fianna Fáil is only beginning. But it is very clear already that it represents a grievous blow to the authority and credibility of Martin who now faces detailed questions about how Gavin was selected, what due diligence was done to prepare him for the predictable but searching interrogation of a presidential campaign and how the campaign was run.
Martin has had a periodically uneasy relationship with his parliamentary party, with frequent accusations that he pays no attention to his TDs and is more reliant on a close group of key advisers. Early in his first period as taoiseach, there were efforts to mount a heave against his leadership, but Martin confronted the would-be rebels at the party’s September think-in and the rebellion collapsed.
There were hopes among Martin’s people that the new influx of TDs in the present Dáil would bolster his position – and he had, after all, just returned to lead the Government after beating Fine Gael and Sinn Féin in the election.
But the result of the parliamentary party’s vote on the presidential candidate in August – when 29 members voted against the leadership’s preferred candidate – showed that there was still a substantial chunk of the party who were ignore the leader’s wishes. That proportion will hardly decline in response to the weekend’s events, and the uncomfortable questions of the postmortem may well increase the damage for the Fianna Fáil leader. Some of his internal opponents will be quite comfortable with that.
Martin is due to be Taoiseach for two more years before handing over to the Fine Gael leader Simon Harris. That timeline will now be questioned by many of his own TDs.
As a validly nominated candidate, Jim Gavin’s name is likely to remain on the ballot paper for the presidential election despite his withdrawal from the campaign last night.
Political editor Pat Leahy explains: while there are powers under the electoral acts for the Minister to order changes to arrangements for the election, this is considered unlikely, as some postal ballots have already been issued.
As such, people are likely to be able to cast their votes for Gavin on election day, and his votes will be counted as normal. If – as can be expected – he is the first candidate eliminated, his transfers will be distributed as normal to the other two candidates.
Yesterday’s Sunday Independent opinion poll asked respondents who they would give their second preferences. The poll found that 60 per cent of Gavin voters would give their second preferences to Humphreys, while just 24 per cent said they would transfer to Connolly.
This suggests that Humphreys is set to benefit from Gavin’s withdrawal from the race more than her rival, though if yesterday’s poll numbers were repeated on election day, Gavin’s transfers would be enough to put Connolly over the line.
‘Decisions that were made must have consequences’ – Billy Kelleher
Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher, who contested Jim Gavin for the party’s presidential nomination, said there has been “multiple failures”.
Kelleher has told RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland that clearly the party didn’t do its “due diligence” and enough interrogation.
He said full support was given to Gavin by leader Michéal Martin and it would have to be assessed how things went “so horribly wrong so quickly”.
Kelleher said it would have been the leadership of the party who approached Gavin about running and there would have to be an assessment as to how it went wrong.
The MEP added there has been a “serious miscalculation” and that a “lot of trauma” has been caused to Gavin and his family.
When pressed on whether Michéal Martin can continue as leader of Fianna Fáil, Kelleher said those issues are for discussion for another day and pointed out that he is not a TD.
“Decisions that were made must have consequences,” he said. “We can’t have a situation where a candidate is pushed through the parliamentary party under extreme pressure on members and then we find out halfway through the campaign the candidate wasn’t prepared, was under huge pressure. We have a situation now where we don’t have a candidate.
“That to me really undermines Fianna Fáil in terms of its ability as a party, as an organisation, and there has to be great discussions and reviews of what happened.”
All eyes will now be on the Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and his decision to back Jim Gavin as his party’s candidate.
In a statement on Sunday night, Mr Martin said:
“Jim Gavin has this evening informed me of his decision to step away from the presidential campaign with immediate effect.
“I fully understand his decision and believe it is the correct one.
“Jim has achieved an enormous amount in his life. His commitment to service and helping others has always, quite rightly, defined his character and his great standing with the public.
“Jim has accepted that he made an error in relation to an issue that has arisen in recent days. He himself has said the office of Uachtarán na hÉireann is the highest in the land and the pinnacle of public service. He is clear that he does not want to bring controversy on to this office.
“This has been a very difficult decision for Jim given his commitment to public service. I wish him well. I have no doubt that he will continue to make a significant contribution to Irish life and society.”
It seems that despite dropping out of the race, Jim Gavin’s name will appear on the ballot paper on October 24th and cannot be removed at this stage.
Fine Gael local election candidate Marian Agrios pulled out of contention for a Drogheda Rural seat on the local authority last May after it was reported that she had allegedly received money and building work at her home in return for withdrawing a planning objection.
Agrios’s name still appeared on the ballot paper and accrued 105 votes despite withdrawing from the election.
Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys has said Gavin’s decision must have been “very difficult” but clearly one “with the best interests of his family at heart”.
In a statement this morning, Ms Humphreys said:
“Jim Gavin has made an enormous contribution to our country. He served in the Defence Forces with distinction and his achievements and the groundbreaking changes he pioneered in Gaelic football are a legacy which will stand the test of time for all those who love our national games.
“While I know this must have been a very difficult decision, it is clearly one Jim has made with the best interests of his family at heart. That is something all of us can relate to. I want to wish Jim and his family all the very best for the future.”
So, what next for Micheál Martin, Fianna Fáil and the election?
Political editor Pat Leahy writes that Gavin’s withdrawal recasts the contest as a two-horse race between left-wing Independent Catherine Connolly and the Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys.
His full analysis can be read here.
Fianna Fáil’s Dublin MEP Barry Andrews says Gavin “made the right call” and to not let this “define him”.
Andrews has also said that it is time for Fianna Fáil to “reflect”.
In a statement on X, the MEP said:
“I want to express my sympathy for Jim Gavin and his great family. I met Jim over the past couple of weeks and saw him in action.
“You couldn’t feel anything but admiration for how he connected with many voters in #Dublin. I certainly wouldn’t like to have been up against him in a general election.
“The Presidential campaign is a very different beast. Jim made the right call yesterday. Having had tough times in my own career, I can only urge him to take some time off with his family and don’t let this define him. His huge achievements in life are still standing.
“I wish him and his family well. It is time for @fiannafailparty to reflect.”
In a statement this morning, Independent candidate Catherine Connolly has said:
“Anyone who seeks to make Ireland a better place through public service should be commended.
“Jim Gavin has made the right decision for himself and his family. I wish him well.”
Good morning. The decision of Fianna Fáil candidate Jim Gavin to withdraw from the presidential election has caused shock waves in the race to succeed President Michael D Higgins.
In a statement on Sunday night, the former Dublin GAA manager said he had “thought long and hard about the potential impact of the ongoing campaign on the wellbeing of my family and friends” and he has withdrawn “with immediate effect”.
It comes after questions were raised about an allegation reported by the Irish Independent that a former tenant of his mistakenly overpaid €3,300 in rent for an apartment he previously owned and was never paid back.
Follow irishtimes.com for coverage throughout the day.
