Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said he was alerted to a possible concern involving Jim Gavin and a former tenant before Mr Gavin was chosen as Fianna Fáil’s presidential election nominee.
Mr Gavin defeated MEP Billy Kelleher in the party’s internal selection process, but later withdrew from the contest after it became known that he owed over €3,000 to a former tenant.
Commenting after Fianna Fáil published its internal review of the presidential campaign, Mr Martin explained that on 5 September his adviser, Deirdre Gillane, received a call from Irish Independent editor Fionnán Sheehan. During that conversation, Mr Sheehan asked whether the party had carried out sufficient background checks and whether it was aware of any dispute between Mr Gavin and a tenant.
Mr Martin said Ms Gillane passed this information on to him and to Fianna Fáil General Secretary Seán Dorgan. Mr Dorgan then raised the matter directly with Mr Gavin. According to Mr Martin, Mr Gavin responded to Mr Dorgan by saying: "No there’s no issue with a tenant, I never had an issue with a tenant."
“That was it,” Mr Martin said. The Taoiseach stressed that at that point no one was aware that any money was owed. “It was a query, and it was nothing near what subsequently emerged.”
Mr Martin also said that he again became aware of the alleged issue the day before Mr Gavin was selected as the party’s candidate on 9 September. He noted, however, that there were widespread rumours circulating at that time about a number of individuals, including Mr Gavin.
“This query came in, it was put to Jim Gavin, and he said ‘no, there’s no issue’.”
Mr Martin said there was no publicly accessible information, such as court documentation, that could have confirmed the existence of a dispute. He added that the only way the matter could have been verified was through a direct account from either the tenant or Mr Gavin himself.
“He was very categoric that there was no issue, and he said he never had a journalist as a tenant even. That was his recollection. He might not have been aware the person was a journalist", said Mr Martin.
The report states that the campaign was expected to cost between €350,000 and €400,000, and because Mr Gavin did not reach the required vote threshold, the party will be unable to recover some of these expenses.
