Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said he was made aware of a potential issue between Jim Gavin and a former tenant, before Mr Gavin was selected as Fianna Fáil's presidential election candidate.
Mr Gavin beat MEP Billy Kelleher in a selection vote, but later dropped out of the race after it emerged he owed a former tenant more than €3,000.
Speaking after the release of Fianna Fáil's review into the presidential campaign, Mr Martin said that on 5 September, his advisor Deirdre Gillane received a phone call from the Irish Independent's Fionnán Sheehan, who asked whether the party had done their due diligence and if they knew anything about a tenant dispute with Mr Gavin.
According to Mr Martin, Ms Gillane told him, and Fianna Fáil’s General Secretary Seán Dorgan, who then put it to Mr Gavin.
Mr Martin said that Mr Gavin told Mr Dorgan: "No there’s no issue with a tenant, I never had an issue with a tenant."
"That was it," Mr Martin added.
However, the Taoiseach insisted that nobody was aware of the money owed at this stage.
"It was a query, and it was nothing near what subsequently emerged."
Speaking on RTÉ's Today With David McCullagh, Mr Martin said he then again heard about the issue between Mr Gavin and the tenant, who was a journalist, the day before Mr Gavin was selected as the party’s candidate on 9 September.
However, he said there were "lots of rumours going on at that stage about everybody, including Jim Gavin".
"This query came in, it was put to Jim Gavin, and he said 'no, there’s no issue'."
Fianna Fáil review sent to Gavin's lawyers
Mr Martin said there was no public record or court record available for anyone to confirm the existence of the dispute, and that the only way for anyone to be aware of it was through a primary source, be it the tenant or Mr Gavin.
"He was very categoric that there was no issue, and he said he never had a journalist as a tenant even. That was his recollection. He might not have been aware the person was a journalist."
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Mr Martin confirmed that the Fianna Fáil report was sent to Mr Gavin's lawyers, but that his understanding was that no substantive changes were made, bar some personal details that may have been taken out.
Mr Martin has said he has accepted "we didn't get this right", about the process to select Mr Gavin as the party's presidential candidate and that he has "taken full responsibility for that".
Mr Martin said: "Jim Gavin came to the table with very significant strengths".
When asked why he only had one meeting with Mr Gavin prior to his selection as candidate Mr Martin said he had also met him at an event Mr Gavin had chaired.
He said: "I actually did a lot of informal sounding-out of people who'd worked with him", adding he got "very little negative feedback about Jim Gavin".
The Taoiseach said: "Our process is not correct" and "we did nothing different to what happened in '97 and 1990, but it's not a good process".
He also said "there should be certain deadlines set" in future.
Mr Martin said that the other potential candidates that Fianna Fáil tested in polling were not at the level required to go forward.
He added that he only had one meeting with Mr Gavin "in the context of the president" but he had met the former Dublin GAA manager prior to that.
"I would have attended an event in the North East Inner City, for example, where he chaired and we had a very, very enjoyable event.
"I hadn't contemplated him being President or anything like that, but the affection there for him was quite evident and, again, the feedback was a very capable individual," Mr Martin said.
The Taoiseach added that the one meeting he had with Mr Gavin about the presidency was "a long couple of hours on it, discussed going through it, at that stage, he wasn't committed at that stage".
"I said I thought he would have a very good chance ... I also went through the pressures and the stresses and the challenges and how it could go wrong and went through all of that and he wanted to discuss it further with his family.
"At that stage, we had tested other candidates in polling terms who, quite frankly, wouldn't have been at the level that would have been required.
"And again, the ultimate test was people had to go before the parliamentary party.
"But at that stage, you know, when I was talking to him in July, I didn't have other candidates really on the field."
'We didn't have other candidates that had a chance'
Mr Martin said that polling suggested Mr Gavin was the only potential Fianna Fáil candidate that could win and that he had received no indication from Mr Kelleher that he wanted to be a presidential election candidate until late August.
"We didn't have other candidates that had a chance, let’s be frank, that’s the reality ... people should put their hands up if they want to be candidates much earlier."
Mr Martin said he accepted "full responsibility" for the failed campaign but said he would not be putting down a motion of confidence in himself for the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party.
"I don’t believe I need to... at all," he said.
"I’ve had substantial engagement with TDs and senators over the past two months. This was a major, major setback, a devastating outcome for the party.
"I didn’t want this and I’ve made it very clear, I take full responsibility, I’m sorry for what happened and I said this to the party membership.
"Everyone acted in good faith here; we wanted to win the election.
"The previous year we won the general election; we were the largest party in the local elections."
Report findings
The report says that on 5 September, Chief of Staff at the Department of the Taoiseach Deirdre Gillane received a call from Irish Independent journalist Fionnán Sheahan.
He said that there may be an issue with a tenant.
The matter was put to Mr Gavin by General Secretary Seán Dorgan and Mr Gavin states that he is not aware of any such issue.
Nominations for consideration as Fianna Fáil's presidential election candidate closed at 5pm that day.
Then on 8 September, Mr Sheahan sent an email to Fianna Fáil saying: "Following on from the request for an interview, would you mind letting me know when Jim Gavin will be responding to media queries."
The email continued: "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."
Mr Dorgan put the matter to Mr Gavin again.
Then Fianna Fáil TD John Lahart sent a text message to Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers referencing a potential issue with a tenant, who was a journalist, and the return of a deposit.
This text was sent to Mr Dorgan who again put it to Mr Gavin.
To both of these queries, Mr Gavin professed no recollection of any such issues, of a deposit not having been returned.
Expected cost of campaign is over €350,000
The report says the expected cost of the campaign is €350,000 to €400,000. As Mr Gavin's vote did not reach the required threshold, the party will not be able to recoup some of these costs.
The review found that Mr Gavin was first mentioned as a candidate in the week of 9 June, when former Dublin footballer Keith Barr contacted Mr Chambers, recommending Mr Gavin as a candidate for Fianna Fáil.
This was followed by a text dated 15 June from Mr Gavin himself to Mr Chambers seeking to follow up on the initial contact.
Due diligence on the candidate was carried out by Seán Dorgan, adviser Peter Dorgan and Assistant General Secretary Darragh McShea.
The report says they believed the process was "exhaustive".
Read More: O'Brien tells Fianna Fáil members to 'move on' from Gavin campaign
"This included providing a warning regarding the intense scrutiny and media attention that would be applied to a candidate, and the consequential need to brief the party on all relevant matters at an early stage," it says.
Due diligence was done by research, the examination of public documents, media articles and several meetings with Mr Gavin, it says.
During the course of the process, a variety of questions on Mr Gavin's position as a landlord and a variety of matters that might arise as a result were raised.
"It was stated that any disgruntled tenant would almost certainly raise their grievance publicly," it says.
"Mr Gavin did not recall any potential issues when the topic was addressed even in the light of Deputy Lahart's and Mr Sheahan's communications and nothing further was done."
25-page report
The report was published and emailed to members of the parliamentary party at 6pm yesterday.
It runs to 25 pages, has chapters on the process by which it was decided to run a presidential candidate, the steps taken during the identification and selection process, the extent of the due diligence carried out, and the basis for the identification and selection of a candidate.
It also has a chapter on potential changes to the procedure for selecting candidates for future presidential elections.
The review was established to consider the steps taken during the identification and selection process of Mr Gavin as Fianna Fáil's presidential nomination, and examined the basis on which he was selected as a candidate.
