Five more Fianna Fáil TDs have publicly pledged support for former Dublin GAA football manager Jim Gavin’s bid to become the party’s presidential candidate.
The declarations bring Mr Gavin’s level of support to 30 members of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party, well in excess of the five needed to get on to the internal ballot paper for the candidacy.
It also indicates that his overall level of publicly declared support is nearing that which would give him a majority vote in a secret ballot to be held among the party’s TDs, MEPs and Senators next Tuesday, when 36 votes will win the day.
His opponent, Ireland South MEP Billy Kelleher, has five public declarations of support and has said he believes he can muster the support needed to win through in the internal contest.
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Mr Gavin today received support from Meath East’s Aisling Dempsey, Wicklow Wexford’s Malcolm Byrne, Tipperary North’s Ryan O’Meara, Kildare North’s Naoise Ó Cearúil and Tony McCormack of Offaly.
Dublin Bay North’s Tom Brabazon also appeared alongside the TDs, although he had previously indicated his support for Mr Gavin.
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Mr Ó Cearúil said on Wednesday that the six had just come from a “very positive” meeting with Mr Gavin, but was slow to outline what the former GAA boss’s platform would be based on. When pressed, he said Mr Gavin would focus on the area of volunteerism but suggested that he was focused on the internal Fianna Fáil contest for now.
Mr Gavin had answered questions on what type of presidency he had in mind, but that it was for the potential candidates to outline their vision once one was selected.
“Whoever is successful next Tuesday [will outline] what their campaign will envision,” he said, adding that Mr Gavin was an “extremely able and industrious person who has exemplified the positive attributes of Irish people”.
He said that he was aware of Mr Gavin’s name as a potential candidate in early July, and that he had the best chance of winning the election.
Mr Byrne rejected the suggestion that the group of TDs were doing the bidding of party leader and Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who supports Mr Gavin. “If Micheál Martin came forward with a dud, we would not be supporting a dud,” he said, adding that they would support either candidate if they won out in the internal contest.
He said Mr Gavin would emphasise an “international presidency” which would also draw on his time as a UN peacekeeper while serving with the Defence Forces.
