The most startling moment of the presidential campaign arrived late last Sunday night with a candidate ending his bid for the Áras in dramatic fashion.
The decision of a former tenant to contact Fianna Fáil on Saturday to tell the party he was owed overpaid rent by the party’s candidate, Jim Gavin, was a key moment in the collapse of his bid for the presidency.
Over a number of days, when questions were asked about the former tenant, Gavin’s campaign began to unravel, ultimately leading him to end his presidential bid and becoming a major crisis for party leader Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
2009
In early 2009 journalist Niall Donald ended his tenancy of an apartment at Blackhall Square on North King Street in north inner-city Dublin owned by Gavin.
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However, direct debit payments mistakenly continued to be made to Gavin’s bank account. When Donald sought the return of the overpayment – €3,300 – Gavin did not repay the money.
Donald let the matter drop but continued to tell the story to friends and colleagues. By 2025 he was based in the Dublin newsroom of the Mediahuis group, which owns the Independent titles and the Sunday World, where he is deputy editor.
August/September 2025
Martin was considering Gavin as the party’s candidate in the presidential election. Mediahuis Ireland editor Fionnán Sheahan spoke with Donald and began making inquiries about Gavin’s financial affairs. Donald had records from when he was seeking the return of the overpaid rent.
Once Fianna Fáil had identified Gavin as a possible candidate by mid-August, the party started what Jack Chambers, the party’s deputy leader and its director of elections, called “extensive and robust due diligence”. It consisted of lengthy meetings with Gavin and a series of questions about his personal and professional life, and his involvement with Dublin GAA.
Before Gavin agreed to become the candidate, he was told that of all campaigns, the presidential election was the most intrusive and that nothing would be off-limits, including his personal life, his taxes and any disputes he might have been involved in.
During their vetting of the former Dublin GAA manager, Gavin told Fianna Fáil he had owned a flat that had been taken back by the banks during the crash. He said it had not been registered with the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB), as it was called then.
The issue of Gavin not registering his rental property with the PRTB emerged during the party’s due diligence but Fianna Fáil thought they could ride that out during the campaign as it was viewed as a common oversight, and not something that would blow up into a major problem given the numbers of landlords who have not registered with the board.
“He should have done it at the time but 60 per cent of landlords had not registered,” said a senior official familiar with Gavin’s vetting.
September 8th
Sheahan sent an email to the Fianna Fáil press office about media access to Gavin. “I have some specific questions I wish to put to him about property interests and a particular issue arising with a tenant when he was a landlord,” he said. To ensure that no money was owed to a tenant, Fianna Fáil checked with Gavin, who reassured him there were no issues.
September 9th
The Fianna Fáil parliamentary party voted to select Gavin as its nominee for president.
Thursday, October 2nd
Sheahan emailed a list of detailed questions to the Fianna Fáil press office about Gavin’s financial affairs, including details on the debt due to the then still unnamed tenant. It included a reference to Gavin owing €3,300, the first time Fianna Fáil became aware of a specific sum.
Friday, October 3rd
Fianna Fáil discussed the email with Gavin that morning, telling him that a sum had been specified. According to the party’s account of the discussion, he told them he had no recollection of the sum of money being owed.
Senior members of the campaign team stressed that the accuracy of the response could be the making or breaking of the campaign. He was advised to go home and talk about it with his wife, Jennifer, to be absolutely sure that there was no basis to the claim.
“Whatever statement we were sending out that evening had to be utterly unbreakable,” said a person with knowledge of the discussions.
Gavin came back after 6pm to say there was no other information to add. A Fianna Fáil press officer prepared the statement responding to the query from the Irish Independent. Gavin read it and made a few minor changes.
“In relation to the tenant, [Mr Gavin] does not have any recollection or records of any such dispute, and they have reviewed all the records they have from 16 years ago,” the statement said.
Saturday, October 4th
The Irish Independent published a report on Mr Gavin’s financial difficulties during the collapse of the property market, including the party’s response to the issue about the tenant. From the report Donald learned for the first time that Gavin had been in financial difficulty at the time he was seeking the return of his €3,300. Frustrated by the Gavin/Fianna Fáil statement, which he felt cast doubt on the veracity of what he was saying, he contacted the party’s press officer. He told her he felt the party’s response implied he was not telling the truth.
Donald said he had documentary evidence to support what he was saying. In addition to offering documentation, Donald shared more detail than had been published in the Independent article.
An emergency meeting of senior Fianna Fáil officials, including Chambers, was hastily convened. They asked Gavin to check what Donald had said, but even then they had a sinking feeling.
“We knew at that stage that the game was up. We were all sick in our stomachs,” said one source.
Gavin came back and told them he had found some records.
“It was over. We couldn’t stand over it,” said the source. It was said that the atmosphere became funereal.
The revelation is said to have surprised the party’s officials.
“Nobody had seen it coming,” said one official. “It would have been bad enough if it had been said at the time of due diligence. Then he could have, at least, been told to pay the debt immediately and correct it before he took the pledge and went before the parliamentary party.”
“There’s no way we would ever have left that risk hanging over him,” the official added.
When he was told, the Taoiseach, who had been at events in Cork all day, made plans to return to Dublin the following morning.
Chambers, in a later interview with RTÉ, said it was clear a “very serious issue” was emerging. But by that stage, Chambers knew it was over. Martin knew it was over. Gavin knew it was over.
Sunday, October 5th
The immediate problem facing the party was that Gavin was due to go on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics on Sunday at noon for a three-way debate with Heather Humphreys and Catherine Connolly.
On Saturday night, he had told the campaign team he needed time on Sunday to break the bad news to his wife, to his two teenage children, to his mother and his wider family. He said he did not want to leave the campaign that way.
It meant the Fianna Fáil candidate appeared in the debate as if he were still in the running. But, in reality, by that stage Gavin was akin to a riderless horse; his campaign was over.
Martin was travelling up to Dublin from Cork that morning. The Taoiseach and Gavin were due to meet in the afternoon. The only thing that needed to be settled was the time and nature of the resignation.
During the debate hosted by RTÉ’s Áine Lawlor, he was asked about the rent overpayment.
“On that particular issue I don’t have all the information,” he said about the overpaid rent. “I’m looking into it and I will deal with it with urgency.”
After the debate, Gavin spoke to reporters as he left RTÉ. He said the period around the loss of the apartment was a traumatic time for his family. He admitted he had not registered the property and again said he was urgently looking into the overpayment and would respond to it comprehensively.
Martin met Gavin that afternoon. Officials began the unenviable job of preparing a withdrawal statement. Gavin said he wanted to come into the campaign headquarters later on Sunday to thank his small team, including Chambers, Martin, press officer Elaine O’Meara and policy adviser Charlotte Simpson.
It was an emotional encounter. Gavin apologised for what had happened. He was clearly upset at how it had all unravelled.
Politically, the party was looking at a campaign that had been completely razed. While those in attendance were very sympathetic to Gavin personally, they realised that the presidential campaign, which had been struggling, was over and had been disastrous for the party.
Gavin ultimately made the decision to withdraw. The party released a statement from him just after 10.30pm on Sunday.
“I made a mistake that was not in keeping with my character and the standards I set myself. I am now taking steps to address the matter,” he said.
Monday, October 6th
By Monday morning, Fianna Fáil was moving into full crisis-management mode.
Chambers went on RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland programme and said it had not been until Donald contacted the party on Saturday that it realised what had happened with the rent overpayment “was contrary to what the party had been told and what had been said on Friday”.
Asked if the party had been misled by Gavin, he said: “It became clear over the weekend that there was a clear contradiction between what was said on Friday and what emerged.”
Later, in a television interview on RTÉ’s Six-One news, Martin said. “Repeatedly Jim was asked was there ever any issues with a tenant and Jim said no.”
Trying to explain the rationale for Gavin not disclosing the dispute with Donald, he said: “There 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’t deal with it. And the consequences of that have now come home.”
Wednesday, October 8th
Donald, who had been identified on social media, went on the Crime World podcast, which he co-hosts, and spoke about his efforts to get the overpaid rent repaid in 2009/2010, and how he felt about what had happened to Gavin.
“Does the punishment fit the crime? Probably not. I kind of feel sorry for him that he wasn’t handled better,” he said.
It was only the previous week that he had learned Mr Gavin was in severe financial difficulty in 2009 and 2010, he said.
“I really felt, why didn’t they contact me a few weeks ago and sort it out, and explain it to me?”
Later that day, Gavin’s solicitor Eamonn Shannon said he had contacted Donald about repaying the journalist the €3,300 “subject to clarifying two issues”, without specifying what the issues were.
Friday, October 10th
Gavin repaid Donald the €3,300 money he owed him “without conditions”, a source close to the one-time presidential contender said.
