Fianna Fáil has confirmed it hired Ivan Yates during the presidential campaign to provide four hours of “interview and debate training” for its candidate Jim Gavin but said the former Fine Gael minister was not involved in its campaign team.
The party statement came as it emerged Minister for Housing James Browne also received media training from Mr Yates. However, a spokeswoman for the Fianna Fáil Minister said the commentator was not involved in advising on “policy matters”.
Controversy has surrounded Mr Yates since it emerged he provided coaching to Mr Gavin. It has now sparked an internal Government row.
Mr Gavin ended his presidential campaign before the vote due to controversy about his failure to repay a former tenant more than €3,000 in overpaid rent.
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Coimisiún na Meán, the media regulator, said it will be contacting major broadcasters to seek more information about the work Mr Yates did for them during the presidential election, after it emerged he had been involved in media training for the Fianna Fáil candidate.
In a statement, the media regulator said it will be “contacting both Newstalk and RTÉ today to obtain further information about this matter”.
The Irish Times asked a number of other Ministers whether they had received media training from Mr Yates. Spokespeople for Jim O’Callaghan and Jack Chambers said they had received no such training from the former Fine Gael minister.
However, Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien said he received three media training sessions from Mr Yates while serving as minister for housing in the last government. A spokeswoman for the Fianna Fáil TD said he “has not availed of media training since he was appointed Minister for Transport and Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment”.
Mr Yates is a former bookmaker and broadcaster who was a co-host of the Path To Power political podcast with Today FM’s Matt Cooper.
In a statement on Monday morning, Fianna Fáil said Mr Yates had not worked with the party beyond September 29th.
It said the commentator was hired for two specific debate programmes. It said the focus of the training was “the practicalities of in-studio interviews”.
“Like all political parties, Fianna Fáil 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 focus of the training was on the practicalities of in-studio interviews and was centred on preparations for two specific programmes.
“Ivan provided two sessions in the early stage of the campaign, between the period 23rd September to 29th September. There was no further training or intervention provided after 29th September. Ivan’s training totalled approximately four hours.
“He did not provide any campaign advice, nor was he involved in the campaign team.”
After the news emerged, Mr Yates’s role as a co-presenter of the Path to Power podcast with Mr Cooper was ended.
Mr Browne, a Fianna Fáil TD, was coached by Mr Yates this year, since becoming a Minister in January.
“Minister Browne has received media-interview preparation from Ivan since he became Minister,” a spokeswoman told The Irish Times.
“Mr Yates has not advised or engaged with the Minister on any policy matters or in any other capacity.”
Mr Yates’s work with Mr Browne was not declared to listeners of the Path to Power podcast, including when the Minister for Housing was discussed on the podcast.
An episode on May 2nd of this year focused on the fallout of the controversy over plans to appoint National Asset Management Agency (Nama) chief executive Brendan McDonagh to the role of the Government’s new Housing Activation Office.
Mr Yates had described the dispute between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil over the appointment as “almost FUBAR territory” , meaning “f***ed up beyond all recognition”.
Of Mr Browne, Mr Yates said “coming into this situation, it’ll take him at least a year to get it all in his head. And it looks like he’s going to be in the exact same situation as Eoghan Murphy, that he is going to be collateral damage in all this.”
Mr Yates also said in the same episode that Fine Gael was opposed to removing rent caps in order to stimulate investment in the market, which was a “very populist and also Opposition view”.
The Path to Power podcast said it “had no knowledge of any professional relationship between the Minister and Ivan Yates”.
Mr Yates has been approached for comment.
Yesterday’s subscription edition of the Path to Power podcast was not published as usual on a Sunday. In a message to subscribers, host Matt Cooper apologised to listeners for the lack of the scheduled episode.
“Now, as you may or may not be aware, I’ve had a disagreement with Ivan over his undisclosed involvement with the Jim Gavin presidential campaign. This means that I’ve decided that we should end our podcast partnership somewhat earlier than we had anticipated,” Mr Cooper said.
“Although we had a podcast recorded for uploading today, I don’t believe it is appropriate for us to bring it to you.”
Mr Cooper said he had known that Mr Yates “has engaged in training for political figures”, but the Last Word presenter and Business Post columnist said he did not know until last weekend that he had helped Mr Gavin prepare for debates during the presidential campaign.
“That involvement would not have stopped me from talking to Ivan about the engagement, I would have asked him about Jim Gavin’s performances, but while reminding our audience that Ivan had played a role in preparing him.”
Mr Cooper said he believed “transparency” is important, notwithstanding Mr Yates’s commitment to client confidentiality.
Mr Yates sparked a campaign-trail controversy when he suggested that were he working with Fine Gael, he would “smear the bejaysus” out of Independent candidate Catherine Connolly.
Fine Gael TD and Minister of State for Migration Colm Brophy on Sunday told RTÉ Radio 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 Mr Gavin.
A Fine Gael spokesman said it had not used Mr Yates for media training or similar work.
A Newstalk spokeswoman said: “Ivan Yates operated as a cover presenter on Newstalk for three days during the presidential campaign on September 23rd, 24th and 25th from 9am-12pm.”
“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.”
RTÉ said Mr Yates was interviewed three times about the election but not during the election period as defined by 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.
Coimisiún na Meán has been contacted for comment.
