Jim Gavin, the former Fianna Fáil presidential candidate, has stepped down from his role as chair of the North East Inner City Taskforce (NEIC)
Mr Gavin was responsible for leading the taskforce and was appointed to the role in 2023. The taskforce was set up in 2016 to improve the economic and social regeneration of Dublin’s inner city following a spate of violent crimes in the north inner city.
The NEIC, which meets monthly, includes a number of Government departments and agencies. At a meeting on Thursday, the NEIC board was informed that Mr Gavin is no longer serving as chair.
In an email to councillors on Thursday evening, Marie Kavanagh, the north inner city area manager at Dublin City Council, said “the board will be chaired on an interim basis by Liz Canavan, assistant secretary general at the Department of the Taoiseach”.
“There are no further details at present.”
Mr Gavin, a former Dublin football manager, was selected to run as Fianna Fáil’s candidate in the 2025 presidential election, but his campaign ended in disaster. Mr Gavin sensationally dropped out of the race after it emerged he had had a dispute with a former tenant over money Mr Gavin owed to him.
The implosion of his campaign prompted a heave against Micheál Martin’s leadership and a formal review of the party’s campaign.
Mr Gavin took over as chair of the NEIC after Michael Stone, the original chair, stepped down in 2023 over a political controversy. Mr Stone had admitted to inadvertently misleading minister for public expenditure and reform Paschal Donohoe over undisclosed help he gave putting up election posters for the 2020 general election.
Mr Gavin was selected for the community group following his role in 2022 as the chairperson of the Dublin Citizens’ Assembly.