Fianna Fáil asks councillors to 'do everything they can' to get Jim Gavin elected

Former Dublin Gaelic football manager Jim Gavin speaking to the media after he was announced as the Fianna Fail presidential candidate, at Leinster House in Dublin this Tuesday.

Fianna Fáil will not block its councillors from backing independent presidential candidates, but has asked them to "do everything they can" to get Jim Gavin elected.

The party's Ard Comhairle this evening decided not to whip its councillors in their respective votes at council level, but has given what a senior source said was a "nudge" to work to see the former Dublin GAA boss elected.

A source said that the party "trusts" its councillors, but that they can "do as they please" with regards to any candidate who comes before a council meeting.

Another source said that while the party will not stop councillors from voting for an independent candidate, there is a sense that the request to "do everything" to see Mr Gavin elected was, in effect, "a clear enough ask" and there was no sense that many councillors want to back a non-Fianna Fáil candidate.

"Our councillors want to see Jim Gavin elected," a source said.

"They will do all they can to see that happen."

Mr Gavin today won a vote of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party to clinch the nomination of the party.

Last week, Fine Gael told its councillors that they would be whipped to prevent the nomination of candidates.