The review into Fianna Fáil’s disastrous presidential election campaign is unlikely to be published until the new year, TDs and senators were told on Wednesday night.
The weekly parliamentary party meeting was also told the report is being reviewed by lawyers for the party and by those representing Jim Gavin, who dramatically withdrew from the election campaign at the end of September.
The review was initially scheduled to be completed by November 12th, but the date of its completion has been put back several times since.
Interviews with the central figures involved in the campaign, including party leader and Taoiseach Micheál Martin, were not completed until mid-November.
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The review is chaired by senior barrister Ciarán O’Loughlin. Its panel includes TDs Tom Brabazon and Eamon Scanlon and Senator Margaret Murphy O’Mahony.
Mr Gavin withdrew from the race for the Áras after it emerged he 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paper and the Fianna Fáil candidate received 7.2 per cent of the vote on polling day, notwithstanding the fact he had withdrawn.
Mr Gavin was Mr Martin’s preferred candidate since his name was first mentioned in late August.
A number of Fianna Fáil TDs and senators have criticised the judgment of the Taoiseach, and those closest to him in the party’s leadership structure, in choosing Mr Gavin, who had no experience in political campaigns.
One TD, a critic of Mr Martin, expressed no surprise at the latest delay and said it was symptomatic of the way the party conducted its affairs.
