It has emerged that Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Fianna Fáil were aware of an issue surrounding Jim Gavin and a former tenant even before he was announced as the party’s presidential candidate, following an internal review into their disastrous campaign.

The issue concerned Gavin’s failure to pay back €3,300 owed to a tenant since 2009, which he had received due to a banking error following the end of the tenancy. The tenant claims to have made efforts to have the money refunded, and even after assurances that it would be returned, Gavin failed to do so.

Additionally, there was the issue of whether or not Gavin had registered the property with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) as required by law.The party was informed on Friday, September 5th, by journalist Fionnán Sheehan of “an issue with a tenant.” In an interview earlier this week, Martin admits that he was made aware of this, but says that there was no detail in the claim. However, on Monday, September 8th, Dublin South-West TD John Lahart sent a text to Minister Jack Chambers that Fianna Fáil’s report describes as “referencing a potential issue with a tenant who was a journalist and the return of a deposit”, which Martin admits he was also made aware of on that date. Despite this, Fianna Fáil still went ahead and selected Gavin, who was Micheál Martin’s preferred candidate, on Tuesday, 9th September.

After Sheehan followed up on the story in early October, Fianna Fáil responded a day later on Friday, October 3rd, saying in a statement that Gavin did “not have recollection or records of any such dispute,” and that he had “reviewed all the records … from 16 years ago.” They did, however, admit that the property was not registered with the RTB despite the legal requirement to do so, but attempted to excuse this failure to comply with the law by claiming that it “was new at that time”, and that “62% of all properties were not properly registered at the time”, a poor attempt at dismissal considering the legislation was brought in in 2004 and the incident occurred five years later, which is made even more lame by the fact that Fianna Fáil were in government throughout that period.

When the story broke a day later on Saturday, October 4th, the tenant, who the party’s report describes as being “aggrieved at Fianna Fáil’s contradiction of the facts”, made contact regarding their statement and claimed to have evidence relating to the dispute. At this point, Gavin and Fianna Fáil suddenly discovered records that indicate “he had received at least some of the payments in question”, which were then reviewed in party headquarters that evening. On Sunday, October 5th, during a debate on RTÉ, Gavin refused to definitively admit to the matter, stating that he was looking into the issue even despite what he had found the day prior, before finally suspending his campaign that night.

Even if the Taoiseach and other senior figures within Fianna Fáil are to be believed, this means that for a month, Gavin simply having no recollection of the dispute was enough to satisfy their curiosities. Even in the face of repeated questioning, rumour within their own party, and with ample time to investigate, nobody in Fianna Fáil decided to do so. After being made aware of serious and detailed accusations, they continued to back their man over the course of four days, for two of which they definitively had record of there being at least some truth to the allegations, until Gavin eventually withdrew from the race himself.

It is disgraceful, but not surprising, that a party which is perhaps best known for facilitating an unscrupulous political culture continues to insult the intelligence of the Irish people in such a manner. It is a slap in the face to renters everywhere that, in the midst of a housing crisis largely of their design, Fianna Fáil sees no need to look into accusations of a landlord withholding money owed to a tenant and failing to register with the RTB when he is standing for election on their behalf.

It will prove difficult for many to believe that this was just a case of forgetfulness and mistakes being made by Fianna Fáil. This reads, at best, like a case of wilful ignorance from senior people in a government party desperate for a mid-term electoral win, if not as something more unscrupulous.