The review into Fianna Fáil’s disastrous presidential election campaign is not now expected to be finished until next month, TDs and Senators have been told.
There was disappointment within Fianna Fáil when it emerged over the weekend the review would not be finished by Wednesday, November 12th, as had been originally planned.
A meeting of Fianna Fáil’s parliamentary party on Wednesday evening was told the review could be finished early December.
The update is said to have been provided by one of the review panel, Dublin Bay North TD Tom Brabazon.
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The review is chaired by barrister Ciarán O’Loughlin and its panel also includes TDs Eamon Scanlon and Senator Margaret Murphy O’Mahony.
Taoiseach and party leader Micheál Martin has come in for criticism from some within Fianna Fáil after the party’s botched presidential bid, which saw its candidate, former Dublin football manager Jim Gavin, withdraw from the campaign.
This happened in early October after revelations that Mr Gavin owed a former tenant €3,300 in overpaid rent. Mr Gavin subsequently paid the tenant back.
His name remained on the ballot paper and the Fianna Fáil candidate got just 7.2 per cent of the vote.
Mr Gavin was Mr Martin’s preferred candidate, and questions have been raised by some Fianna Fáil politicians publicly and privately about his future as leader.
In his address to the parliamentary party on Wednesday, Mr Martin is understood to have outlined that he had a duty to lead the country.
He told the meeting he will fulfil his obligations and mandate, and said that the focus of the parliamentary party must be on addressing the needs of the people and the challenges that Ireland faces.
Mr Martin is also said to have told TDs and Senators that he has been working over the last 11 months leading Government “flat out” to deliver on protecting the economy, and growing jobs, housing, infrastructure and disability services.
One source said there was what they perceived to be veiled criticism from contributors at the meeting in terms of delivery and policy, but Mr Martin had been “given a pass tonight [Wednesday]” while suggesting opponents in the party would “lie in wait”.
Elsewhere, Midlands-Northwest Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Cowen described his party’s handling of the fallout from Mr Gavin’s failed presidential election campaign as “a clusterbeep”.
Speaking to Irish reporters at the EU parliament in Brussels, Mr Cowen said Fianna Fáil’s mistakes in relation to the campaign were “acknowledged, I appreciate, by everybody concerned”.
He said that review authors would assess “if there was anybody more accountable than anybody else and what sanctions may arise – if any”.
Mr Cowen said Mr Martin remains party leader “at the moment” and is committed to leading Fianna Fáil into the next election. He added that, from his perspective, there was nothing to contradict that “unless issues or ... events, dear boy, can happen”.
