Choosing Jim Gavin as presidential candidate a ‘serious miscalculation’, Billy Kelleher says

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

An MEP who ran against Jim Gavin for the Fianna Fáil presidential nomination has said Mr Gavin’s dramatic withdrawal was a “very serious miscalculation”.

Retired army pilot and former Dublin Gaelic football manager, Mr Gavin, announced his withdrawal on Sunday night, hours after he faced questions over claims he owed a former tenant €3,300.

Mr Gavin – who had the support of Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin – secured the party’s nomination after a contest against MEP and former junior minister Billy Kelleher last month.

The Corkman told RTE Radio on Monday that the party “didn’t do our due diligence” in choosing Mr Gavin as a candidate and that he raised concerns about the process being “quite a chaotic scene” in early August.

“From the perspective of individuals, you have to feel very sorry for Jim Gavin and his family,” Mr Kelleher added.

“This is a shell shock obviously to the presidential election campaign itself, and the Fianna Fáil party as well, from the point of view that we don’t have a candidate in the race. So all in all, it is deeply, deeply, deeply upsetting.”

He added: “We clearly we didn’t do our due diligence, didn’t do enough of an interrogation, and that was the issue I raised at the outset.

“I was clearly concerned that there seemed to be no proper process in place, there was no scrutiny of candidates, names were being mentioned on an ad hoc basis. I thought, all in all, it was quite a chaotic scene in early August.”

He said there was no “open tendering” for people to put themselves forward as a candidate and the decision seemed “preordained” when, he said, party members should be consulted.

“We can’t have a situation where a candidate is pushed to the parliamentary party under extreme pressure on members, and then we find halfway through the campaign that the candidate wasn’t prepared, was under huge pressure, and we end up now in a situation where we don’t have a candidate.”

He refrained from commenting on what it means for Mr Martin’s leadership, saying it was up to members of the Dáil.

Mr Kelleher added that he did not expect “anything to change from that perspective over the next couple of weeks or months”, but said that decisions that were made “must have consequences”.

“It was very, very evident that there was full support been given to Mr Gavin from Micheál Martin and others in the leadership,” he said.

“But I think what we really have to do initially is just to assess the process, how it went so horribly wrong, so quickly.”

He added: “Obviously, an awful lot of people are very upset over this. I mean, we have Fianna Fáil members right across the entire country, Fianna Fáil voters that have nobody to vote for or campaign for in this particular election, and that does have consequences from a party perspective.

“We can’t have a situation where this is just swept under the carpet and we all move on.

“It’s a very serious miscalculation. It has caused an awful lot of trauma, both to individuals, in terms of Jim Gavin and his family, and more broadly than to the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party, and the integrity of how we actually assess candidates.”