{"id":38819,"date":"2025-10-08T20:25:31","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T20:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/taoiseach-apologises-after-gavin-withdraws-from-presidential-race\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T20:25:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T20:25:31","slug":"taoiseach-apologises-after-gavin-withdraws-from-presidential-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/taoiseach-apologises-after-gavin-withdraws-from-presidential-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Taoiseach apologises after Gavin withdraws from presidential race"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Kevin Sharkey and Gabija Gataveckaite<\/span>BBC News NI <\/span><\/p>\n

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\"PAPA Media<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A legal representative for Jim Gavin says the money owed will be returned subject to a few clarifications<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Taoiseach (Irish PM) Miche\u00e1l Martin has apologised to his party after Fianna F\u00e1il’s Irish presidential candidate Jim Gavin withdrew from the race.<\/p>\n

The Fianna F\u00e1il party was thrown into chaos when Gavin withdrew on Sunday night after it emerged he owed a previous tenant rent of \u20ac3,300 (\u00a32,870) which was mistakenly overpaid.<\/p>\n

The former tenant who raised the issue during the election campaign was Niall Donald, the deputy editor of the Sunday World Newspaper.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday evening, the taoiseach apologised to party ministers, TDs and senators and said he was “devastated” by Gavin’s withdrawal from the race.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Martin also said he “fully understood the enormity and disappointment” of many party members.<\/p>\n

Martin has now proposed new rules by which Fianna F\u00e1il may select a presidential candidate in future presidential elections.<\/p>\n

The proposal would give members a say and will mean each party member will have one vote.<\/p>\n

Previously, only the parliamentary party could vote by secret ballot in selecting a candidate and ordinary members did not have a say.<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach also laid out the timeline and the process undertaken by the party in selecting presidential hopefuls over the summer.<\/p>\n

He also spoke about the preparations and “due diligence” which was carried out with Gavin, a source said.<\/p>\n

Mr Donald has spoken publicly about the controversy on the Sunday World Crime World podcast he co-hosts<\/a>, and explained details about the “complicated” financial dispute which happened 16 years ago.<\/p>\n

He said he should have received the money after overpayments were transferred to the landlord in error from his bank account.<\/p>\n

“If you’ve ever been in those circumstances where you know, you feel that you’ve been ripped off, like it gives you this feeling of being powerless, and you know, I was really struggling financially. That’s the truth of it,” he said.<\/p>\n

A legal representative, acting on behalf of Gavin, has now indicated the money will be paid back.<\/p>\n

In a statement to the Irish broadcaster RT\u00c9, the legal firm said: “We have reached out to Mr Donald and explained to him that we have been instructed to make the payment of \u20ac3,300 to him subject to clarifying two issues.<\/p>\n

“We await hearing back from Mr Donald and once those two issues are clarified, we can then proceed to close out on the matter.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘I feel sorry he wasn’t handled better’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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During his interview on the podcast, Mr Donald reflected on Gavin’s sensational withdrawal from the presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

“Does the punishment fit the crime? Probably not. I kind of feel sorry for him that he wasn’t handled better.”<\/p>\n

But he said Gavin’s nominating party, Fianna F\u00e1il, may not have been aware of all the information.<\/p>\n

Explaining the background to the dispute, Mr Donald stated he stayed in the rented apartment owned by Gavin for about two-and-a-half years, and moved out at the beginning of May 2009.<\/p>\n

He said he cancelled one of the standing orders, but failed to cancel a secondary one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Gavin’s former tenant Niall Donald, co-host of the Sunday World’s podcast ‘Crime World’, spoke about the issue<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Mr Donald said he subsequently made numerous unsuccessful efforts to retrieve the money from Gavin and had been unable to get a response from his former landlord on many occasions.<\/p>\n

Mr Donald said “loads of people” knew about his dispute with Gavin, who previously managed the Dublin men’s Gaelic football team.<\/p>\n

However, he acknowledged the difficulties the controversy caused Gavin in the campaign, including an appearance on a television debate on Sunday when he was repeatedly questioned about the matter.<\/p>\n

“I mean, I’m not going to overdo it, but I felt sorry for him because he’s under pressure. People make mistakes.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Money owed ‘never arrived’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Mr Donald also outlined in detail how the events around his overpayment to his former landlord unfolded.<\/p>\n

“That was the full extent of my savings. Let’s put it that way. I mean, I didn’t have anything else.”<\/p>\n

He said he contacted Gavin immediately to ask for his money back through phone calls, emails and text messages, but he stopped answering.<\/p>\n

He subsequently sent a solicitor’s letter to Gavin requesting his money back, and eventually visited the Dubliner’s parents’ home to deliver a letter.<\/p>\n

Mr Donald said he phoned him afterwards and accepted he owed him the money.<\/p>\n

“And the money just never arrived.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Fianna F\u00e1il leader Miche\u00e1l Martin supported Jim Gavin to be the party’s presidential candidate<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n


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Kevin Sharkey and Gabija GataveckaiteBBC News NI PA Media A legal representative for Jim Gavin says the money owed will be returned subject to a few clarifications Taoiseach (Irish PM) Miche\u00e1l Martin has apologised to his party after Fianna F\u00e1il’s Irish presidential candidate Jim Gavin withdrew from the race. The Fianna F\u00e1il party was thrown […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[2492,2702,9169,2651,8139,8323],"class_list":["post-38819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-n-ireland","tag-apologises","tag-gavin","tag-presidential","tag-race","tag-taoiseach","tag-withdraws"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38821,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38819\/revisions\/38821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}