FORMER FINE GAEL Minister turned political pundit Ivan Yates has been axed from a podcast he co-presented with Matt Cooper after it was revealed today he was involved with Fianna Fáil’s presidential election campaign.

The Business Post first reported that Cooper, who is a columnist for the newspaper, had ended his partnership with Yates after The Irish Independent this morning reported Yates had been involved in debate preparation for Jim Gavin.

Cooper said in a statement he was unaware of this and believes it should have been disclosed to him.

Cooper and Yates began podcast Path to Power together in December 2023 as co-hosts. The two dissect the political events of the week in each episode, of which there have been 96.

The podcast is produced by Cooper and talent agent Noel Kelly – best known as Ryan Tubridy’s agent. It’s understood that Yates was set to leave the podcast early next year but today’s revelation sped up the process.

Although Yates’s active involvement in the campaign has only publicly emerged today, he attracted criticism during the Áras race when he said on another podcast, Newstalk’s Calling It, were he contacted for advice by Fine Gael, he would “smear the bejaysus” out of candidate Catherine Connolly.

Connolly went on to win the election but said she was shocked by Yates’s comments, while Fine Gael’s candidate Heather Humphreys distanced herself from the comments and said neither she nor her campaign had any involvement with Yates.

Yates later hit back and said the resulting criticism was “BS”.

Yates has been contacted for comment.