Presidential election candidate Jim Gavin has said he is looking into reports he owes a former tenant €3,300, but that he did not have "all the information" about the matter.
It relates to a dispute with a former tenant around the time his own family came into financial difficulty, as reported by the Irish Independent yesterday.
It was reported that an apartment owned by Mr Gavin in the north inner city was occupied by a couple between 2007 to 2009. When they left, their rent payment by standing order was still being paid into Mr Gavin's account due to a banking error, despite the tenant having cancelled the standing order.
The former tenant told the newspaper that he wrote to Mr Gavin that €3,300 in total was paid to him in error, asking him to acknowledge the mistake made by the tenant and to refund him.
However, the tenant claimed that the refund was never paid to him, despite numerous attempts to contact Mr Gavin, as per the report.
Speaking during RTÉ's live Presidential Election debate today, Mr Gavin said: "That matter was over 16 years ago. It was a very stressful time for myself and my family.
"Like a lot of families and couples, we came into financial difficulty at that time."
Mr Gavin said: "If it happened, I'm very sorry that it happened. I’m looking into it and I will deal with it with urgency."
Speaking after the debate, Mr Gavin said he is still "gathering the data" on the incident, saying it was "part of my life that I left behind".
The Fianna Fáil candidate said his family only own one property now, which is their home.
He said that he did not register the rented property with the Residential Tenancies Board, but added that "it was a new law at the time" and "the majority of people didn't register [properties] at the time".
He said he has declared all his income.
'Gavin's campaign not in trouble' - Thomas Byrne
Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence Thomas Byrne said Mr Gavin's campaign was not in trouble and there was a long way to go in the race - "and nobody should be counting their chickens".
"There’s still almost three weeks left to play in this campaign, there’s a lot to do, there’s a lot of debates going on, a lot of campaigning to do," he said.
"And I think this Presidential Election is up for grabs and I think Jim Gavin is an excellent candidate."
Asked about Mr Gavin polling at 15%, Mr Byrne said if he was disappointed by polls, he would have given up on politics himself a long time ago.
He said particularly in the case of Fianna Fáil, polling numbers have been underestimated "for quite some considerable period of time".
Additional reporting PA
