Speaking on the Crime World podcast this morning, Donald said everybody that has worked with him “would have known my history with Jim Gavin” and those outside of journalism would also have known about the matter.
“Every time Dublin won an All-Ireland or whatever, people would say ‘there’s your mate Jim Gavin’,” he said.
Advertisement
He said he rented the apartment in Smithfield from 2007 to 2009 and cancelled one of the rental standing orders when he moved out, but did not cancel a second one. After contacting Gavin, he said: “As far as I remember, he certainly said ‘I’ll look into it or whatever’.
“Obviously you wait and you expect him to get back to you, and it didn’t happen. I phoned him a couple of times, he didn’t get back. Sent him emails, sent him texts,” he said, adding he was “totally” confident that he would get the money back initially.
Donald said he tried contacting Gavin for weeks but received no answer. He also emailed the Defence Forces. Three months passed when he went to speak to a solicitor and approached the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB), when he discussed Gavin wasn’t registered with them.
He said he gave a solicitor’s letter to Gavin’s parents and received a phone call from him that night.
“He was angry that I’d called to his parents’ house, which I can understand,” he said.
He said after he calmed down, Gavin accepted he owed him the money and said he would send it to him, but it never arrived.
“I never talked to him again, never talked to him since. Life goes on.”
Asked if he had been paid back the money, Donald said: “No I haven’t.”
In a statement to RTÉ this afternoon, a legal representative for Gavin said: “We have reached out to Mr Donald and explained to him that we have been instructed to make the payment of €3,300 to him subject to clarifying two issues.
“We await hearing back from Mr Donald and once those two issues are clarified we can then proceed to close out on the matter. From Mr Gavin’s initial consideration of the podcast it is clear there are inaccuracies,” the statement added.
Gavin withdrew from the presidential election late on Sunday night, a day after it was reported by the Irish Independent that he failed to pay a debt of more than €3,000 to a former tenant.
Jim Gavin's lawyers reach out to former tenant as ex-candidate commits to repaying €3,300
LAST UPDATE | 8 Oct
JIM GAVIN HAS said he will pay back the €3,300 owed to a former tenant of his “subject to clarifying two issues”.
It comes after the co-host of the Sunday World’s Crime World podcast confirmed that he is the tenant involved in the payment issue.
It is the first time that Niall Donald has spoken about the matter publicly.
He told The Journal earlier this week that he had not heard from Gavin after contacting Fianna Fáil about the rent issue last Saturday.
Speaking on the Crime World podcast this morning, Donald said everybody that has worked with him “would have known my history with Jim Gavin” and those outside of journalism would also have known about the matter.
“Every time Dublin won an All-Ireland or whatever, people would say ‘there’s your mate Jim Gavin’,” he said.
He said he rented the apartment in Smithfield from 2007 to 2009 and cancelled one of the rental standing orders when he moved out, but did not cancel a second one. After contacting Gavin, he said: “As far as I remember, he certainly said ‘I’ll look into it or whatever’.
“Obviously you wait and you expect him to get back to you, and it didn’t happen. I phoned him a couple of times, he didn’t get back. Sent him emails, sent him texts,” he said, adding he was “totally” confident that he would get the money back initially.
Donald said he tried contacting Gavin for weeks but received no answer. He also emailed the Defence Forces. Three months passed when he went to speak to a solicitor and approached the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB), when he discussed Gavin wasn’t registered with them.
He said he gave a solicitor’s letter to Gavin’s parents and received a phone call from him that night.
“He was angry that I’d called to his parents’ house, which I can understand,” he said.
He said after he calmed down, Gavin accepted he owed him the money and said he would send it to him, but it never arrived.
Asked if he had been paid back the money, Donald said: “No I haven’t.”
In a statement to RTÉ this afternoon, a legal representative for Gavin said: “We have reached out to Mr Donald and explained to him that we have been instructed to make the payment of €3,300 to him subject to clarifying two issues.
“We await hearing back from Mr Donald and once those two issues are clarified we can then proceed to close out on the matter. From Mr Gavin’s initial consideration of the podcast it is clear there are inaccuracies,” the statement added.
Gavin withdrew from the presidential election late on Sunday night, a day after it was reported by the Irish Independent that he failed to pay a debt of more than €3,000 to a former tenant.
His statement came hours after he failed to clarify the reports on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics debate.
“I made a mistake that was not in keeping with my character and the standards I set myself,” Gavin said.
The fallout from his decision has roiled the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party, with members privately expressing shock, frustration and anger and others taking aim at Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
The parliamentary party is set to discuss the matter at a meeting this evening.
Written by Jane Moore and posted on TheJournal.ie
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Aras 2025 aras25 Jim Gavin niall donald Presidential Election rental case the tenant