Duffy’s week goes from historic driving offences to ‘car-crash’ interview
FROM questions about his involvement in a serious car crash as a teenager to a squirm-inducing radio interview, it’s been a long week for Gavin Duffy – and he is only half way through it.
The presidential candidate has been initiated in the trenches and has learned the hard way the characterisation of the election as difficult was not plucked from thin air.
Following questions over the car crash when he was 18, which left a woman with serious injuries, and two more motoring offences in later years – including one for dangerous driving – the businessman took to the airwaves to discuss the issue.
What followed was an interview with RTÉ’s Sean O’Rourke that showed little trace of Duffy’s extensive career in communications, offering PR advice to political and business heavyweights.
Until now, the Co Louth man had managed to effectively keep his head down and avoided the types of questions that have plagued other can- didates. And it was working – he didn’t have the baggage of Seán Gallagher; he didn’t have questions over his financial backing such as Joan Freeman or the sometimes bizarre comments of Peter Casey which require explanation.
The live interview started to go a little off-track when he was engaged in a discussion on the sale of AIB to “foreigners”, a poor choice of words perhaps and a strange inflection.
As a president, he would have no role in any such selloff and, as a candidate, may be best advised to let that one lie.
The former Dragon sounded breathless and flustered, and there was an uncomfortable amount of stuttering over his words – even before the going got tough.
He appeared to lose the thread when questioned about where the 10 policy papers he had pledged to produce are, and if he was really serious about the campaign wouldn’t he have completed and released them by now?
“Ah Sean, I’m not making it up as I go along... believe you me, I’m going to deliver,” he said – but it just didn’t sound as convincing as it may have even a day earlier.
But it reached peak cringe listening when he turned to suggestions about RTÉ acting as a “fan club” for Michael D Higgins and being too “embarrassed” to reveal the settlement paid to Seán Gallagher over the ‘Frontline’ debate.
It was not a polished performance. If Duffy was a client of his own firm he would probably be demanding a refund.
Unfortunately for him, the performance could be even more costly in the long run.