Martin told Gavin he could no longer support him after tenant issue – review

Micheal Martin told Jim Gavin he could no longer support his candidacy for the presidency after the tenancy issue came to light, an internal review has found.

An internal review also found that the party and Mr Gavin were asked at least three times about a possible issue with a former tenant before Mr Gavin was selected as Fianna Fail’s candidate on September 9.

The report said that 150,000 euro had been spent on the presidential election as of November 11, and that the final costs could be as high as 400,000 euro.

The long-awaited review was initiated to examine the party’s selection process, which saw ex-Dublin football manager Jim Gavin emerge as the Fianna Fail candidate for the presidency.

Mr Gavin was championed by Mr Martin and deputy leader Jack Chambers but withdrew from the contest three weeks before polling day after it emerged he owed 3,300 euros to a former tenant in overpaid rent.

The sum has since been repaid.

Questions have been raised about Fianna Fail leadership’s level of knowledge of the tenant dispute before the vote to choose a candidate.

The report said that Mr Gavin was asked on September 5 and September 8 about a possible dispute with a tenant, based on two queries from Fionnan Sheahan from the Irish Independent.

“Mr Gavin explained his recollection as being that there had been no issue with any tenant,” the report said.

Fianna Fail TD John Lahart also sent a text to Mr Chambers on September 8, “referencing a potential issue with a tenant who was a journalist and the return of a deposit”.

This text was sent to Fianna Fail general secretary Sean Dorgan who put it to Mr Gavin.

“Nothing further was done,” the report said.

It added that this remained Mr Gavin’s position until the tenant identified himself to his press adviser on October 4.

Earlier that day, on October 4, Mr Sheahan published a piece in the Irish Independent entitled ‘Jim Gavin, the Celtic Tiger apartment he lost in the crash and a rent refund dispute’.

The tenant, later revealed as Sunday World deputy editor Niall Donald, contacted Mr Gavin’s team after becoming “aggrieved” at Fianna Fail’s response in the article.

“This was the first occasion upon which the party and Mr Gavin are provided with the tenant’s name and other precise details,” the report said.

“On hearing the tenant’s name Mr Gavin appeared to recognise the name. Mr Gavin undertook to make additional enquiries.”

The matter was seen as “very serious” and Mr Gavin accepted that he had received “at least some of the payments”.

Mr Gavin decided to proceed with the three-candidate debate on RTE’s The Week In Politics the following day.

Afterwards, he met with Taoiseach Mr Martin and Mr Chambers that afternoon.

“An Taoiseach and Minister Chambers advise that they are not in a position to recommend to the parliamentary party that they continue to support Mr Gavin.

“They advised that continuing with the campaign would lead to 10 very difficult days and that it would not be fair to ask party members to continue to campaign for him.

“Later that evening, Mr Gavin returned to the party’s headquarters and announced his intention to withdraw from the campaign. Mr Gavin was given assistance in drafting a statement.”

The report also found that Mr Gavin was first suggested by Keith Barr, a former Dublin footballer, to Mr Chambers on or about the week commencing June 9.

On July 21 Mr Gavin met with Mr Martin for “an exploratory meeting”, before Mr Gavin confirmed to the party he wished to seek to be their nominee on August 1.

The report noted that the party did not launch Mr Gavin’s campaign during August as “many candidates that launched their campaigns in August had met with failure”.

The report also found there was a “lack of a detailed process” to identify and select candidates, leading to an informal process where the party leadership was contacted by figures who were interested.

It said as a result, the progress to select a candidate was “at best haphazard” and it was not clear that names who were rumoured to be connected to the Fianna Fail nomination “actually had no interest or didn’t know how to proceed”.

No polling was done on Mr Gavin’s candidacy prior to his nomination in early September.

The party had set aside half a million euros for the presidential election, and as of November 11 2025 around 150,000 euros had been spent.

It is believed that the total cost will be approximately 350,000 to 400,000 euro, and budgets were drafted on the basis that the party would get 250,000 euro.

“This, unfortunately, did not materialise,” the report said.

It concluded there should be a specific timeline for nominations and the precise procedures to put in place should be decided at the party’s Ard Fheis.

Mr Gavin was not interviewed for or involved in the report.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Martin said his leadership of Fianna Fail was not in trouble ahead of his parliamentary party receiving the report and discussing it at a meeting in the evening.

Mr Martin said some people had been engaged in an “agenda” of “attack lines” against him for several weeks in the run-up to the publication of the report.

Speaking to reporters on his way into Cabinet, Mr Martin said he would be sharing the report with the parliamentary party “promptly”, having received it on Monday evening.

Asked if his leadership was in trouble, he said: “No, not at all.”

Earlier on Tuesday morning, Billy Kelleher, an MEP for the party who also sought the nomination, refused to express confidence in Mr Martin.

He told RTE radio: “I will wait for the report to be published and then, whatever is contained in the report, I will act in the best interest of the party and the best interest of the integrity of the membership right across the country who are deeply upset and hurt over what happened.”

He said it would be “wrong” to comment on confidence before the publication of the report.

Mr Martin told reporters: “I will deal with the entirety of the report this evening because it’s a report in the first instance for the Fianna Fail party – because the Fianna Fail party asked for that.

“And the terms of reference were very clear that it would be completed, it would be handed to me, and then I would share with the parliamentary party, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

Mr Martin reiterated criticism of some of the media coverage of the report, adding that “false” assertions about individuals had been made.

Asked if he was relieved he had the report, he said: “I’m much happier that I have it. I didn’t have it all along and I was taken back to some of the commentary last week, where it seemed to people to be acting on reported leaks or whatever, and the assertions contained in some of the commentary last week were simply false – and I had to put that on the record.”

Pressed on what was incorrect about the coverage, Mr Martin refused to “contextualise assertions that were made”.

He told reporters he was “not going to get into an argy-bargy with anybody”.

“The report will be published. The report will go to the parliamentary party. The full entirety of the context will be there,” he said.

Mr Martin said that he was “absolutely” confident he could remain as leader, adding that he had received a mandate when Fianna Fail was returned as the largest party in the Dail in last year’s general election.

“I’ve been focused all along – I know others have been focused on the ‘gotcha moments’ and attempting to create ‘gotcha moments’ and attempting to create attack lines against me,” he said.

“I mean, that’s been the agenda for the last number of weeks, but I haven’t been focused on that. I’ve been focused on the work as Taoiseach, the housing issue, disability, child poverty, the infrastructure challenge.

“And if you look at the last number of months, it’s been about policy from my perspective and doing my work as Taoiseach.

“I’ve studiously avoided being deflected by any other issues.”