World of Politics with Harry McGee

Fianna Fáil’s greatest sin during its botched presidential campaign was not its supposed shortcomings in due diligence in its failure to find out that Jim Gavin owed a former tenant €3,300 since 2009.

The biggest sin was selecting Gavin in the first place.

It’s clear from the review that the party and its officers did as much as they could in that regard. Gavin was asked five times if there was an issue – and each time said he had absolutely no recollection about an issue with a tenant regarding a flat that he owned.

Fianna Fáil isn’t the FBI and there is only so much it could have done.

While Fionnán Sheahan of the Independent had raised the question around the time of Gavin’s nomination in the first week of September, there was no specific details, nor was the tenant named.

It was in early October, three weeks into the Gavin campaign that the full details of the over-payment were shared.

Still, the party’s candidate flatly denied any issue. It was only when the tenant (journalist Neil Donald) contacted the Fianna Fáil press adviser on Saturday and gave the full details that the penny dropped that the unthinkable had occurred.

Gavin did actually owe a €3,300 overpayment for fifteen years but for some unfathomable reason couldn’t remember it or was in denial about it.

Of course, it was an omnishambles. Fianna Fáil’s leadership realised immediately that the game was up. The candidate has stepped down by the following day.

It was deeply embarrassing and a massive humiliation for the party (and for the leadership) but it was not Fianna Fáil’s biggest sin.

The biggest sin was selecting Gavin in the first instance.

Even if the controversy over the rent had not arisen, he would have finished a distant third in the election and the party would have struggled to get its deposit back.

One of the most important disclosures of the review was that there is no prescribed method within Fianna Fáil for seeking a nomination to be its candidate for president.

“There is not and never has been a procedure whereby any person might apply to be a Fianna Fáil candidate for President,” it stated.

Pictured: Jim Gavin…omnishambles from the outset.