Fianna Fáil presidential candidate Jim Gavin has said he is “looking into” an allegation that a former tenant of his mistakenly overpaid €3,300 in rent for an apartment he used to own and was never paid back.
“If it happened I’m very sorry that it happened, I really am, and I will address it,” he said on Sunday.
Mr Gavin and his wife Jennifer used to own an apartment in the Smithfield area of Dublin.
A report in the Irish Independent set out how they got into financial difficulties and the property was handed back to the bank with an additional sum added to the mortgage on their Rathfarnham home.
It also reported that a tenant who moved out of the Smithfield property in 2009 continued paying rent in error, and claimed a sum of €3,300 was not refunded to them despite a number of attempts to get it back.
Mr Gavin was asked about the issue during the latest televised presidential debate between the three candidates on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics.
Asked by presenter Áine Lawlor if he owed the former tenant the money, Mr Gavin said it was “over 16 years ago” and it was a “very, very stressful time for myself and my family”.
“Like, a lot of families and couples we got into financial difficulty at that time.”
Pressed on the claim, he said: “On that particular issue I don’t have all the information.”
He also said: “I’m looking into it and I will deal with it with urgently.”
Put to him that 2004 legislation meant the tenancy should have been registered with the Residential Tenancies Board, Mr Gavin said: “Like the majority of people we didn’t register the flat at the time.”
Speaking to reporters after the debate, he said he had “declared all my [rental income] for taxes.
“I’m still gathering data and information, and when I have that, I will take comprehensive action, and I’ll share that with you.”
Presidential candidates (left to right) Heather Humphreys, Catherine Connolly and Jim Gavin with presenter Aine Lawlor during the debate. Photograph: Conor O’Mearain/PA Wire
Separately, Independent candidate Catherine Connolly was quizzed during the debate on how she employed a woman convicted of firearm offences to work for her at Leinster House for six months in 2019.
Ms Connolly employed Ursula Ní Shionnain shortly after her release from a prison sentence handed down by the Special Criminal Court.
Ms Ní Shionnain had been a prominent member of socialist republican organisation Éirigí, which campaigned against the Belfast Agreement.
Ms Lawlor put it to Ms Connolly that Ms Ní Shionnain was photographed at Éirigí’s ardfheis in January 2019, at about the time she started working for the Galway West TD.
Ms Connolly was asked what she knew about the status of Ms Ní Shionnain’s membership of Éirigí at the time she employed her.
She said she was “not misled” and also that “Éirigí is a registered political party” which she later described as “socialist” and “anti-fascist”.
She said Ms Ní Shionnain “served her prison sentence, got early release, started her PhD in prison, and came out.”
Ms Connolly stood over her view that she was the “perfect candidate” for the work she was employed for.
Both Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys and Mr Gavin criticised her in relation to her hiring Ms Ní Shionnain and how she was signed into Leinster House by Ms Connolly while a Garda vetting process was ongoing.
However, Ms Connolly insisted “no rules were broken here”.
During a post-debate press conference Ms Connolly was asked repeatedly if she had asked Ms Ní Shionnain if she was still a member of Éirigí when she employed her.
She did not answer the question specifically but reiterated that “Eirigí is a registered political party”.
Asked if Ms Ní Shionnain had specifically told her she had renounced the type of activity for which she had been convicted, she replied: “Absolutely, without a doubt.”
During the debate Ms Humphreys – who served as a government minister for 10 years as the housing crisis continued – was asked about President Michael D Higgins’s 2022 remarks describing the crisis as “our great, great, great failure” and “a disaster”.
She disputed a suggestion that anyone who agreed with Mr Higgins should not vote for her, saying she has “huge sympathy for people that can’t get a house” and who are “putting off life decisions” as a result.
“We need to do more in terms of housing,”, she said, adding that “billions” are being spent on it and “it’s important that we see results.
“As president, I will highlight those issues. I have no problem doing that.”