Gavin Duffy’s only regret in election campaign is losing over €100k

© Provided by Associated Newspapers (Ireland) Limited, t/a dmg Media Ireland Faced with the ignominy of coming last, Gavin Duffy’s only regret is the fortune he has lost on the presidential campaign trail.

Arriving at Dublin Castle holding hands with his wife, Orlaith Carmody, shortly after 3pm, the self-confessed millionaire admitted defeat to the current incumbent Michael D. Higgins.

Asked had how much he had spent on the presidential campaign in the last three weeks, he replied: ‘Anytime you lose money you regret it, and that’s a regret.’

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Candidates must get more than a quarter of the quota — around 12.5pc of the total vote — to seek reimbursement from the State of expenses.

When the candidate, who appears to be getting less than 2pc of the vote from latest tallies, was pushed on an exact figure of his losses and whether he had spent more than €110,000, he replied: ‘Oh, it’s definitly more than€€100,000.’

The statutory spending limit at presidential elections is a maximum of €750,000 but it is understood that none of the candidates have reached that amount on spending this year.

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Mr Duffy added: ‘If you’re an independent candidate without funding it does make it very, very difficult and we should look at that.’

Revealing how he was the only person in the country not surprised with success of fellow Dragon Peter Casey,  he said he was no ‘evil genius’ and that the pair are still friends.

Speaking of his campaign, he said of Casey: ‘He was throwing grenades repeatedly. One of them was going to explode. We had five candidates who didn’t resort to that level of populism.’

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Admitting that his campaign ‘didn’t go right’, he admitted that he might have caught the political bug and joked that he was ‘worried about that’.

‘Nobody led me up the garden path, I’m entirely responsible for my own entry into the race. I don’t think I did anything very wrong, I just didn’t connect with the people of Ireland,’ Mr Duffy said.

”Today is about Pres Higgins winning a fantastic result and going back with a strong mandate for seven years.’

Asked if he will run in 2025, he replied: ‘I don’t think so. You either succeed or learn here. I don’t know [if I will run for public office] but the issues I raised are still of interest to me.’