{"id":104457,"date":"2025-10-05T22:41:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T22:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/104457\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T22:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T22:41:07","slug":"fianna-fail-presidential-election-candidate-jim-gavin-withdraws-from-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/104457\/","title":{"rendered":"Fianna F\u00e1il presidential election candidate Jim Gavin withdraws from race"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a statement on Sunday evening, he confirmed that he had \u201ccause to reflect\u201d following reports in the last number of days regarding stories about his failing to register a tenancy<\/a> with the Residential Tenancies Board.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I announced my intention to contest the presidential election, I did so in a spirit of lifelong public service and a love of country. That has always been my sole motivation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe deeply in this country, its dreams, its hopes and, above all, its people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The office of Uachtar\u00e1n na h\u00c9ireann is the highest in the land and the pinnacle of public service. It is an office that must be untainted by controversy or distraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always knew the campaign would be robust and challenging, and anyone who knows me knows that I have never shirked from a contest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n I have always sought to act in honour and good faith.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, recent days have given me cause to reflect. I made a mistake that was not in keeping with my character and the standards I set myself. I am now taking steps to address the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have also thought long and hard about the potential impact of the ongoing campaign on the well-being of my family and friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaking all these considerations on board, I have decided to withdraw from the presidential election contest with immediate effect and return to the arms of my family.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout this campaign, I have been humbled by the encouragement and kind words I received. So many people have gone out of their way to support me in so many ways, and I would like to express my sincere thanks to them. I truly hope you understand my decision and do not feel let down.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Miche\u00e1l Martin: ‘Correct decision’<\/p>\n

In a message to the Fianna F\u00e1il parliamentary party, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin confirmed Mr Gavin’s decision.<\/p>\n

“I fully understand his decision and believe it is the correct one,” he said.<\/p>\n

“As we all know, Jim has achieved an enormous amount in his life, something which was seen by all of us who campaigned with him in recent weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“His commitment to service and helping others has always, quite rightly, defined his character and his great standing with the public.<\/p>\n

“Jim has accepted that he made an error in relation to an issue which has arisen in recent days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“As Jim himself has said, the office of Uachtar\u00e1n na h\u00c9ireann is the highest in the land and the pinnacle of public service. He has also said he does not want to bring controversy onto this office.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

Tenant ‘overpaid \u20ac3.3k’<\/p>\n

It was reported that a former tenant overpaid Mr Gavin \u20ac3,300 in rent that he has failed to return<\/a> since 2009.<\/p>\n

The Irish Independent reported that the former Dublin manager had failed to register the Smithfield property with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), as required under law since 2004.<\/p>\n

After getting into financial difficulty, Mr Gavin and his wife, Jennifer, surrendered the home to the banks.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the media following the RT\u00c9 presidential debate on RT\u00c9’s The Week in Politics, Mr Gavin could not provide any more information on what happened.<\/p>\n

During the debate, he said, \u201cIf it happened, I\u2019m sorry it happened\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt happened 16 years ago. [It was] a very stressful time for Jennifer, myself, family,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m still gathering data [and] information. When I have that, I’ll take comprehensive action, and I\u2019ll share that with you [the media] as well.\u201d When the Irish Examiner asked Mr Gavin how many tenants had rented the property after the 2009 dispute and when he surrendered the property to the bank, he once again said he was \u201cstill gathering data\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s part of my life that I have left behind,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I still need to do a lot of research.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost it, we lost the flat, and we’ve moved on and just have one property now, our home for our family.\u201d Mr Gavin repeated that the law regarding registered tenancies with the RTB was \u201cnew\u201d and \u201cthe majority of people\u201d did not register their properties. The requirement was introduced in 2004, with the dispute occurring in 2009.<\/p>\n

When asked if he accepted that he broke laws, Mr Gavin responded: \u201cI didn\u2019t register it, yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a statement on Sunday evening, he confirmed that he had \u201ccause to reflect\u201d following reports in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[4488,9,10,18,13,14,4771,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5765,5,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-104457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-irish-examiner-instagram","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-fianna-fail","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-micheal-martin","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-presidential-election","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}