Gavin's name to remain on presidential ballot paper

Jim Gavin dropped out of the Irish presidential election less than three weeks before polling day

Jim Gavin's name will remain on the Irish presidential election ballot paper despite his withdrawal from the race.

The Fianna Fáil candidate announced on Sunday that he was withdrawing from the election with "immediate effect".

Gavin, the former Dublin gaelic football manager was set to be one of three candidates standing on 24 October, alongside Independent TD Catherine Connolly and Fine Gael's Heather Humphreys.

Speaking on his way into government buildings on Tuesday, Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin said Gavin's name remaining on the ballot paper was "just the reality of how things have worked out".

"It's very unfortunate," he added.

Announcing his withdrawl on Sunday evening, Gavin said he had "made a mistake that was not in keeping with my character and the standards I set myself".

He did not elaborate on the reason for his withdrawal but it followed a news report in the Irish Independent newspaper on Saturday alleging he owed €3,300 (£2,870) to a former tenant.

On Monday, Martin said it had been a "tough day" for the party.

Analysis: 'A new dynamic to the count'

Gavin could still be elected president of Ireland.

It's highly unlikely for sure, but it's not beyond the realms of possibility now that it has been confirmed his name will remain on the ballot paper.

In effect he has now withdrawn from the contest himself, but his name is not being withdrawn from the ballot paper.

It's understood that part of the reasoning for this is that some postal ballot papers have already been distributed and his name was on these ballot papers when they were sent out.

So, for consistency, the exact same list of candidate names needs to appear on ballot papers for people who will be voting on the day of the election.

This means that if some people choose to vote for Gavin, his votes will be counted.

Assuming that he will have the fewest number of first preference votes, he would then be eliminated if there was no outright winner after the first count.

That's when it could become interesting.

Gavin's transfers would then be allocated to the remaining two candidates and would help to elect either Connolly or Humphreys.

It would result in a quite bizarre situation where the votes of a candidate who decided to withdraw from the contest would become decisive in electing the next Irish head of state.

It certainly adds a potentially new dynamic to the counting of votes the day after the election.

Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin endorsed Jim Gavin as Fianna Fáil's presidential candidate in August

Fianna Fáil said on Tuesday that it first raised the issue of a possible dispute with a tenant on 8 September after a query from the Irish Independent.

But the party said it was assured by Gavin on a number of occasions that there was no dispute.

The party said that on Saturday Gavin began to recall some details after the tenant contacted Fianna Fáil with specifics.

Martin said claims Fianna Fáil knew about the issue with the tenant before selecting Gavin as the party's presidential candidate were "not a fair representation of the situation at all".

"An issue was raised, but in a very generic and general way," the taoiseach said.

"We were not aware of any such issue, and that is the truth of it, and when the issue was raised repeatedly, we were told it was no issue."