The former minister Mary Hanafin has said she will not contest the Fianna Fáil nomination for the presidency.
Ms Hanafin told the Brendan O’Connor Show on RTÉ radio this morning that she would not now contest the nomination, given the decision of party leader Micheál Martin to back the candidacy of Jim Gavin.
Ms Hanafin complained that she had been kept in the dark about the intentions of the leadership. “Unfortunately in Fianna Fáil you tend to learn a lot in the newspapers,” she said.
Asked if she had been treated with respect, she said, “A phone call would have made a difference . . . I would have accepted that.”
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She also said that former taoiseach Bertie Ahern had been badly treated by the party leadership.
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“He’s a former taoiseach a former party leader,” she said, suggesting that Mr Ahern should have been told by Mr Martin that he would not back him for the presidency.
Mr Martin confirmed his endorsement of former Dublin football manager Mr Gavin to run as the Fianna Fáil candidate yesterday afternoon. He said he believes Mr Gavin has all the qualities necessary for the position.
Earlier on Saturday, Mr Gavin contacted members of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party seeking their votes to become the party’s nominee.
Mr Martin said he had met Mr Gavin in July after several people had suggested the chief operations officer of the Irish Aviation Authority to him as a candidate.
Speaking at the Daniel O’Connell Summer School in Co Kerry yesterday, Mr Martin told reporters: “I think he’s an extraordinary, accomplished person. I think he has the right values, he has a life of service to the nation, a peacekeeper with United Nations, working in our Defence Forces, chaired pretty expertly the citizens’ assembly in terms of the government mayoral issue . . . ”
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Mr Martin said he was “certainly supporting Jim Gavin and supporting in the context of a decision that the parliamentary party will take”.
Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien and Minister for Children Norma Foley have become the latest Cabinet Ministers to back Mr Gavin’s bid for the Fianna Fáil presidential nomination.
In a post on X, Mr O’Brien said: “I have had the privilege of meeting Jim Gavin many times, and he is a man of the highest integrity.”
Speaking on This Week on Radio One this morning, Ms Foley said that she was “100 per cent” backing Mr Gavin. “We would be blessed to have him,” she said.
Mr Gavin now has the backing of all the Fianna Fáil Cabinet members, with the exception of Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan, who has not yet indicated his intentions.
