Taoiseach Micheál Martin did the right thing in apologising to his parliamentary party, Ireland South MEP Billy Kelleher has said, adding that it was “too early to say” whether he might again seek the Fianna Fáil presidential nomination.

Mr Kelleher’s remarks come after Wednesday night’s meeting of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party, which occurred three days after the party’s candidate Jim Gavin withdrew from the presidential race in dramatic fashion.

There has been considerable anger in the party since late on Sunday night, when Mr Gavin withdrew from the race following reports that he owed a former tenant, Sunday World deputy editor Niall Donald, €3,300 for rent overpaid 16 years ago.

Speaking to this newspaper before Wednesday night’s meeting, the Fianna Fáil leader had defended the due diligence surrounding the initial decision to put forward Mr Gavin for selection.

“The difficulty is, people on one hand say: ‘Ye didn’t do due diligence’. We did,” Mr Martin said.

“And then when you say you did it, you’re accused of throwing someone [under the bus], which we have no intention of doing.”

Strongly backed 

Mr Gavin was selected on September 9 as Fianna Fáil’s presidential candidate after being strongly backed by Mr Martin and deputy leader Jack Chambers.

Members of the 71-strong Fianna Fáil parliamentary party voted for Mr Gavin over Mr Kelleher by a margin of 41 to 29.

In his opening remarks to Wednesday night’s parliamentary party meeting, Mr Martin, who was said by some present to have been visibly emotional, acknowledged the “hurt and shock” of party members at how Mr Gavin’s candidacy ended, saying that he was “devastated” at what had occurred.

Mr Martin said he was very sorry for how things had turned out, and was open to any suggestions on how the party’s presidential selection process could be changed for the future. He told the meeting he “always had the best interest of the party at heart”.

Speaking to The Echo yesterday, Mr Kelleher said Mr Martin had shown acceptance that “there were grave errors made in terms of how they selected the candidate”.

The entire process had been very damaging for the party and the integrity of the presidential election itself, Mr Kelleher said, noting that Mr Gavin’s name will remain on the ballot as a valid candidate, even though he is no longer in contention.

Assessment

“While the next presidential election won’t be for the next seven years, there was an acceptance that there does need to be some assessment of where it all went wrong, and how we can ensure that due diligence, in terms of candidate selection — not just for the presidential nomination, but overall — need to be more detailed and more thorough,” he said.

“I think there was just an acknowledgement that things were handled badly, without malice, of course — none of this was intentional — but at the same time, it did do damage to membership across the country, undermined the parliamentary party,” he said.

“But I do think the fact that is acknowledged now, and we will put a process in place to assess how it went wrong and to ensure that something like that does not happen again, is welcome, and I welcome as well that there was an acknowledgement that this had caused great stress, obviously, to Mr Gavin and his family, and we must be very conscious of that.”

Asked whether he would be interested in putting his name forward for selection for the Fianna Fáil nomination for president in seven years’ time, Mr Kelleher said seven years was so far away, “I couldn’t even see the sunrise from that far out”.

Hope

When asked whether he would still like to be president, he replied that he had put his name forward in the hope that Fianna Fáil might select him.

“I thought it was a time that I could offer something to the presidency in terms of what I campaigned on, what I spoke to the parliamentary party members about, but look, seven years, there’s so much between now and then, it’s just too early to say,” Mr Kelleher said.

“My commitment now is to being a member of the European Parliament and a member of Fianna Fáil, to make sure that we continue to work hard for the people of Ireland in the Dáil, the Seanad, the councils, and in the European Parliament.”

While Mr Gavin’s name will remain on the ballot, only two candidates remain in the race for the presidency: left-wing Independent Catherine Connolly, and Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys, a former social protection minister.

Polling day is on Friday, October 24.