{"id":110649,"date":"2025-10-09T07:48:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T07:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/110649\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T07:48:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T07:48:10","slug":"devastated-micheal-martin-apologises-to-fianna-fail-for-jim-gavin-fiasco-as-party-orders-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/110649\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Devastated\u2019 Miche\u00e1l Martin apologises to Fianna F\u00e1il for Jim Gavin fiasco as party orders review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin has issued a humble apology to Fianna F\u00e1il TDs and senators for the Jim Gavin debacle<\/a> and agreed to an official review of the disastrous decision to run the former Dublin GAA manager in the presidential election<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a closed-door parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday night, an emotional Mr Martin apologised for the affair, which leaves Fianna F\u00e1il without a campaigning candidate in the first presidential election it has contested since 1997.<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach acknowledged the \u201churt and shock of members\u201d and said he was \u201csorry\u201d that Mr Gavin\u2019s candidacy had ended in the way it did, adding that he was \u201cdevastated\u201d by how it unravelled.<\/p>\n

Mr Gavin withdrew from the race on Sunday after it emerged he had failed to return overpaid rent to a former tenant.<\/p>\n

Mr Martin told TDs and senators he \u201cfully understood the enormity and disappointment\u201d of the election embarrassment.<\/p>\n

He said he was open to any suggestions on how the party\u2019s process to nominate a presidential candidate can be changed for the future.<\/p>\n

Meeting ‘civil’ despite criticism<\/p>\n

The meeting, which had been billed as \u201chigh stakes\u201d by TDs in the build-up, was said to be \u201cconstructive and civil\u201d, although some strongly criticised both the party leadership and the process involved in naming Mr Gavin as the Fianna F\u00e1il nominee.<\/p>\n

Ireland South MEP Billy Kelleher<\/a>, who was beaten by Mr Gavin in the party\u2019s nomination race, was among the first to speak, and sources said his contribution was constructive and that he suggested the establishment of a review of the controversy.<\/p>\n

It was agreed that this would be established, with its membership selected from within by the parliamentary party.<\/p>\n

A number of TDs and senators raised concerns about Mr Gavin\u2019s wellbeing in the wake of the affair, with one source saying he had \u201creally been hung out\u201d since the weekend.<\/p>\n

Sources said that while there was still \u201cdeep and real anger\u201d within the party over how the incident transpired, the meeting had not been as confrontational or angry as expected.<\/p>\n

No threat to Martin’s leadership<\/p>\n

Mr Martin\u2019s position<\/a> was not under any threat during the meeting.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Wednesday, the party member seen by many as most likely to challenge Mr Martin<\/a> \u2014 justice minister Jim O\u2019Callaghan \u2014 said he was not gunning for the job in the near future.<\/p>\n

Asked if he was interested in being party leader, Mr O\u2019Callaghan said: \u201cI think, at some stage, in the future.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve no issue with respect to Miche\u00e1l Martin\u2019s leadership,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

“He is doing a very good job as leader of Fianna F\u00e1il and the Government.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jim Gavin to repay tenant<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Mr Gavin has said he will repay the \u20ac3,300 owed, as the tenant at the centre of the rent dispute spoke publicly for the first time.<\/p>\n

Mr Gavin dramatically withdrew from the race following claims he owed the former tenant, journalist Niall Donald, more than \u20ac3,000 for a rental arrangement that was not properly registered.<\/p>\n

A statement by a legal representative of Mr Gavin said the former Dublin GAA boss will repay Mr Donald<\/a>, once the former tenant clarifies two issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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 \u2014 we await hearing back from Mr Donald and once those two issues are clarified, we can then proceed to close out on the matter,\u201d the legal representative said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom Mr Gavin\u2019s initial consideration of the podcast, it is clear there are inaccuracies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Donald said he felt somewhat sorry for Mr Gavin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to him whether he wants to pay it back or not,\u201d he said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t the outcome I wanted. Does the punishment fit the crime? Probably not.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin has issued a humble apology to Fianna F\u00e1il TDs and senators for the Jim Gavin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,4771,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5765,5,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-110649","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-fianna-fail","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-micheal-martin","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-presidential-election","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110649","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=110649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}