{"id":64063,"date":"2025-10-06T22:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T22:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/64063\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T22:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T22:33:09","slug":"taoiseach-to-face-pressure-at-fianna-fail-meeting-after-turmoil-of-jim-gavins-withdrawal-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/64063\/","title":{"rendered":"Taoiseach to face pressure at Fianna F\u00e1il meeting after turmoil of Jim Gavin\u2019s withdrawal \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> will face one of the sternest tests of his long leadership of Fianna F\u00e1il <\/a>at a party meeting on Wednesday amid widespread anger among TDs and MEPs over Jim Gavin<\/a>\u2019s abandoned presidential campaign<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In the aftermath of Mr Gavin\u2019s shock withdrawal<\/a> from the election late on Sunday night, Fianna F\u00e1il was thrust into a day of turbulence and recrimination on Monday as the largest party in the State came to terms with having no candidate in the election. <\/p>\n

Many Fianna F\u00e1il representatives openly criticised Mr Martin for showing a lack of judgment in his strong backing of Mr Gavin as the preferred candidate. Some also said there was a failure to ensure appropriate due diligence was carried out in scoping out Mr Gavin\u2019s suitability.<\/p>\n

Presidential candidate for Fianna F\u00e1il Jim Gavin is questioned on RT\u00c9’s The Week in Politics debate. Video: RT\u00c9 <\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il deputy leader Jack Chambers also came under fire from some colleagues for saying there was a contradiction between Mr Gavin not recalling he owed a tenant some \u20ac3,300 in overpaid rent and the situation that emerged the following day, when the tenant came forward with an account that had \u201cabsolute veracity\u201d. <\/p>\n

Dublin MEP Barry Andrews said he would not like to hear \u201cJim Gavin being thrown under the bus\u201d and said Mr Chambers \u201csort of implied that the party was misled\u201d in an interview with RT\u00c9 Radio. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s unfortunate,\u201d he said. \u201cI would rather that we had a proper discussion about this at the parliamentary party.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, in an interview with RT\u00c9\u2019s Six One News, Mr Martin suggested the inconsistency between what Mr Gavin recalled on Friday and what emerged on Saturday contributed to ending his candidacy. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Fintan O’Toole: What on earth was Miche\u00e1l Martin thinking? Jim Gavin clearly wasn\u2019t readyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was an issue in his life, around 2009. He clearly did not deal with it at that time or since, and probably buried it somewhere in the recesses of his mind, and didn\u2019t deal with it. And the consequences of that have now come home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Martin also hinted that Mr Gavin\u2019s decision to withdraw may have been prompted by a conversation both men had on Sunday afternoon. Asked if the decision was made for him, Mr Martin replied: \u201cI think Jim made the decision himself, but we did discuss it with him, because obviously his whole DNA is competitive, and this [was] a very difficult decision for him to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Martin accepted that he had strongly backed Mr Gavin. \u201cI take responsibility for that, and I want to acknowledge that many members of the party are hurting out there today because of what has transpired.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Martin said the party had carried out vetting and checking and had specifically asked Mr Gavin if he had any issues with former tenants. He said Mr Gavin had replied he absolutely did not.<\/p>\n

Mr Martin is expected to be questioned closely at the upcoming party meeting regarding the due diligence carried out, as well as what some TDs regard as his excessively \u201ctop-down\u201d style of management. <\/p>\n

Cork North-Central TD P\u00e1draig O\u2019Sullivan, a supporter of Billy Kelleher, said senior Ministers had been frogmarched out at the behest of Mr Martin to support Mr Gavin. <\/p>\n

\u201cI flagged all those concerns. We wanted a fair contest, and we certainly didn\u2019t get one. We could have teased out the actual strengths and weaknesses of both candidates, including the Taoiseach\u2019s preferred nominee,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Galway West TD John Connolly said he highlighted Mr Gavin\u2019s lack of experience in politics but was reassured by Mr Martin that he could handle the political sphere, as Mary McAleese had done in 1997.<\/p>\n

\"\"Calamity for Fianna F\u00e1il as Jim Gavin drops out of the presidential race<\/p>\n

Dublin Rathdown TD Shay Brennan said the party was \u201cvery angry\u201d with the leadership at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened is very problematic. It will be a robust meeting and people won\u2019t be holding back on speaking their minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

TDs who spoke privately were split on the implications it would have for the party and for Mr Martin\u2019s leadership. All agreed it was a serious issue, although Ministers thought it would have no long-term consequences. <\/p>\n

One Minister, speaking privately, said: \u201cThe knives will be out, but Miche\u00e1l remains the best person to lead us into the next general election by a country mile.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Irish Times view on Jim Gavin\u2019s withdrawal: a Fianna F\u00e1il fiascoOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin will face one of the sternest tests of his long leadership of Fianna F\u00e1il at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[895,61,60,2043,1843,43,978],"class_list":["post-64063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-fianna-fail","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jim-gavin","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-presidential-election"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}