Fianna Fáil confirm Ivan Yates provided training to Jim Gavin in presidential election
Ellen O'Donoghue
Fianna Fáil released a statement on Monday confirming the use of Ivan Yates to coach party candidate Jim Gavin for the first presidential election debate.
It emerged last week that Mr Yates had been hired to coach Mr Gavin, and it was subsequently announced that Mr Yates would leave the hugely popular political podcast he co-hosts with Matt Cooper, Path to Power.
"Ivan provided two sessions in the early stage of the campaign, between the period 23rd September to 29th September," Fianna Fáil's statement said.
Newstalk said a review is under way after Mr Yates presented a programme on its airwaves on three dates during the presidential election campaign and did not inform it of “any conflict of interest”.
"Ivan Yates did not inform Newstalk of any conflict of interest relating to the presidential election campaign ... This matter is currently under review by Newstalk management," the Newstalk spokeswoman said.
Mr Yates, a former Fine Gael minister for agriculture, already went viral during the election campaign after he said he would advise his old party to "smear the bejaysus” out of Catherine Connolly, who went on to win the election comfortably.
RTÉ said Mr Yates was interviewed three times about the election, but not during the election period as defined by media regulator Coimisiún na Meán.
It has asked him why he did not disclose his involvement with one campaign, and said that had it been informed, it would have advised him that it would have to be disclosed to the audience. It said it is satisfied there was no breach of election guidelines by RTÉ.
In their statement, Fianna Fáil also said that "like all political parties," it has "for many years used the services of media skills consultants".
"The party currently works with a number of providers, all on an ad-hoc basis.
"In relation to the recent presidential campaign, the party retained the services of Ivan Yates to provide interview and debate training," the Fianna Fáil statement confirmed.
"The focus of the training was on the practicalities of in-studio interviews and was centred on preparations for two specific programmes."
The party's statement said that no further training or intervention was provided after September 29th, and that Mr Yates' training totalled around four hours.
"He did not provide any campaign advice, nor was he involved in the campaign team," Fianna Fáil's statement finished.
The Irish Independent reported on Saturday that Mr Yates had coached Mr Gavin for the first presidential debate, but played a smaller role in the second debate.
His undeclared involvement presented problems for the creators of the Path to Power podcast, Today FM broadcaster Matt Cooper and NK Productions, owned by agent Noel Kelly.
In a statement issued to The Irish Times on Saturday afternoon, the two said they had “taken the decision to end Ivan’s role as co-host of Path To Power with immediate effect”.
“Neither Matt Cooper nor NK Productions were aware that Ivan was working on the campaign, and both believe that this information should have been shared with the audience of the podcast when the presidential election was being discussed.”
Mr Cooper said: "While we have always been aware of Ivan’s commercial activities, his decision not to advise us that he was actively engaged in the presidential election on behalf of one of the parties is disappointing.
“Had he shared that information with us, we would have made sure that our audience was aware of the matter when we were discussing the election."
Mr Yates had previously informed them he intended to leave the podcast in the new year.
Mr Gavin pulled his presidential election campaign on October 5th after it emerged he owed over €3,000 in overpaid rent to a tenant from 16 years ago.
It comes after the Irish Independent reported claims from a tenant who said he had failed to recover over €3,000 in overpaid rent from Mr Gavin 16 years ago. Since then, he has repaid the debt.
Controversy over the coaching provided by Mr Yates, however, has reportedly sparked an internal Government row, with Fine Gael TD and Minister of State for Migration Colm Brophy telling RTÉ Radio on Sunday that Fianna Fáil had “questions to answer” on the matter.
He said Fianna Fáil could not “just dismiss” questions about the media training work Mr Yates did with Jim Gavin.
A Fine Gael spokesman told The Irish Times that it has not used Mr Yates for media training or similar work.
