Sir, – The Hindenburg-esque collapse of Jim Gavin’s presidential campaign should give us all pause for thought on the way in which our presidential elections are conducted.

Political parties are fallible. They make mistakes, probably more often than most private entities.

In spite of this, our constitutional order has come to vest them with extraordinary presidential nomination powers; both in terms of the ability to nominate a candidate of their own, and in terms of the ability to block the nomination of non-party rivals, as in the case of Maria Steen.

On this occasion, the consequence of this system has been the nomination and subsequent withdrawal (many hundreds of thousands of taxpayer euros later) of a somewhat unprepared individual by the largest party in the Dáil, resulting in what may become a lacklustre, two-person contest that can only do damage to our democracy.

The presidential nominations system must be reformed to ensure a wide field of successfully nominated candidates to prevent such damage from repeating in the future. – Yours, etc,

KILLIAN FOLEY-WALSH,

Freshford Road,

Kilkenny.

Sir, – On a personal level, I feel sorry for the tenant, Billy Kelleher, Jim Gavin, Jack Chambers, and Micheál Martin – in that order.

In a broader context, I feel sorry for the Irish electorate and less sorry for the Fianna Fáil party.

When it comes to the blame, I mainly blame the Taoiseach.

In terms of thank yous, Irish Independent journalist Fionnán Sheahan deserves great credit for his due diligence and forensic reporting – as does RTÉ’s’s Áine Lawlor for her probing questions during the televised debate.

And as for fallout: Jim Gavin has done the honourable thing; the Taoiseach needs to follow suit. – Yours, etc,

CHRIS FITZPATRICK,

Terenure Road East,

Dublin 6.

Sir, –I am glad Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Andrews thinks Jim Gavin made just “a mistake”.

It was, in my opinion, a very long mistake – 16 years.

My feeling is that if I were the tenant in question asking, perhaps begging, for the return of my ¤3,300 refund, that I might not be c