Gavin presidential campaign fallout has 'dragged on for too long', Taoiseach says

Vivienne Clarke

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that the controversy over the presidential campaign of Jim Gavin had “dragged on for too long” and he rejected the suggestion that he should table a motion of confidence in himself.

“I don’t believe I need to do that,” he told RTÉ radio’s Today with David McCullagh show.

The presidential campaign had been a “major setback” and a “devastating outcome” for the party, he added. “I’m sorry this happened.” The wrong call had been made. “I take responsibility.”

Mr Martin said the party had decided on Jim Gavin as a candidate for the presidency as "we didn’t have heavy hitters within the party.

"Jim Gavin came to the table with significant strengths."

Mr Martin said polling had been done on potential candidates. He rejected the suggestion that Mr Gavin should not have been considered because he had no political experience. "Are we saying the presidency is exclusively a role for politicians?

"You don't need to be a constitutional lawyer to be president."

Mr Martin disputed the timeline for the declaration of interest by MEP Billy Kelleher in running. There had not been any indication of such interest in a WhatsApp message on 14th August, he said. “A phone call wouldn’t have gone amiss.”

“The WhatsApp from Billy on the 14th of August was that he certainly wasn't going to be a candidate. That was what I took from that.

"Now Billy said I took the wrong conclusion from that and fair enough we all have different perspectives but the WhatsApp was very clear at the time.

"But I don't want to go back over all of that. Billy is a fine parliamentarian and so on but I got no indication from Billy that he wanted to be candidate until around the 26th or 27th.”

As for the timeline about when it was first known about the issue of the tenant being owed money by Mr Gavin, Mr Martin said that when Mr Gavin was asked he said there was “no issue.”

At the time the campaign was dealing with “allegations that were false” about Mr Gavin who said he “never had a journalist as a tenant.”

There was no public record to confirm such a dispute and only “the primary sources” could provide that information. “Jim Gavin was adamant on the issue.”

Mr Martin also rejected the suggestion that “centralised” decisions, took matters into his own hands and did not involve members of the parliamentary party.

“I would take issue with that general characterisation. By the way, the previous year we won three general elections, we're the largest party in the local elections. The point is, in terms of, you've got to look at this in the round, I said last night to the party, when I became leader in 2011, we had 20 seats.

"No one ever thought we'd be four seats in the European Parliament, and we're back to four seats in European Parliament. That was a very effective election.

“Candidates were sounded out for the European election in the exact same way, it worked for us in that context, didn't work on this occasion We decided not to launch in in August We thought we'd be the wrong one to launch and in retrospect that was a wrong mistake and I was wrong.

“Everyone acted in good faith here. We wanted to win the election. We didn't have other candidates that had a chance, let's be frank, that's the reality.

"The immediate polling after the nomination of Jim Gavin was positive, actually quite positive and he was there both with the other candidates who were polled at that time and higher in any other Fianna Fáil prospect.

“Yes, we should have gone earlier in August, in retrospect. In previous campaigns, people went in August and it proved damaging to their campaign. And it's a call you make at the time.

"I take full responsibility. I'm sorry for what happened. I said this to the party membership."