'Serious breach of trust' if senior Fianna Fáil members knew about Jim Gavin's tenant

Billy Kelleher said it would be 'deeply worrying' if senior party figures did not disclose they were aware of Jim Gavin’s issue with a tenant in advance of the vote on their presidential candidate

'What I would be concerned about is if information had been brought to people in advance of candidate selection and ultimately, that information was the reason for Mr Gavin withdrawing.' Picture: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews

It would be a "serious breach of trust" if Fianna Fáil TDs and senators were asked to vote for Jim Gavin while senior members of the party had been told of issues with a tenant, a senior party figure has said.

Fianna Fáil Ireland South MEP Billy Kelleher — beaten in a vote for the party's nomination to run in October's presidential election — said it would be “deeply worrying” if senior party figures did not disclose they were aware of Jim Gavin’s issue with a tenant in advance of the vote on their presidential candidate.

On Thursday, the Irish Examiner revealed that a member of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party informed deputy leader Jack Chambers that Jim Gavin may have had an issue with a former tenant hours before he was chosen as the party's presidential election candidate.

Mr Kelleher said the report is "worrying": 

What I would be concerned about is if information had been brought to people in advance of candidate selection and ultimately, that information was the reason for Mr Gavin withdrawing. 

"That would be deeply worrying, deeply worrying — that people would have sat on that information and wouldn’t have acted on that information.

“Of course, this goes to the core of trust. We have to be trusting and the parliamentary party was advised to vote for Mr Gavin.

“People were giving that advice knowing that there was potential problems. Well, then that is a very serious breach of trust.”

The revelation was later made to the team overseeing a review of the party’s calamitous presidential election, with documentary evidence provided, it is understood.

That review is set to be delivered to members next week, potentially at a special party meeting. 

However, while Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party on Wednesday evening that the review into the election will be provided to them next week, sources told the Irish Examiner this is dependent on Mr Gavin's lawyers returning the report. 

Fianna Fáil has requested that his lawyers complete their assessment and send it back to the party by Friday. However, one source said there is a "big difference" between requesting it back and actually getting it back.