Minister of State at the Department of the Environment Paudie Coffey has defended the appointment of Irish Water board member Hilary Quinlan as his driver.
Mr Quinlan, a former Fine Gael councillor, resigned from his position on the board of Irish Water this afternoon.
Both men are from Waterford. Mr Quinlan comes from a Fine Gael background in Waterford city.
Mr Coffey said he did not believe the appointment of Mr Quinlan as one of his two drivers would have been perceived as being a conflict of interest.
He said he had known Mr Quinlan for years and he had been unemployed when he hired him at the end of August.
The minister said his resignation would remove any perceived doubt about a potential conflict of interest, admitting that the “"perception was wrong".
He said Mr Quinlan would remain on as his driver.
Earlier, Taoiseach Enda Kenny confirmed to the Dáil that Mr Quinlan had resigned from the board of Irish Water.
He made his comments during this afternoon's Taoiseach's Questions debate.
The Department of the Environment has responsibility for Irish Water.
Mr Quinlan’s appointment to the board of Irish Water was approved by then environment minister Phil Hogan last November.
Mr Quinlan lost his seat in the local elections in May.
The Irish Times reported that he had since been hired as a ministerial driver by Mr Coffey.
Mr Quinlan has known Mr Coffey for years and has canvassed with him.
Having lost his council seat, Mr Quinlan is entitled to €57,757 as a gratuity payment; he received €15,000 a year from Irish Water by being on the board, and being a driver for the minister pays €665 a week.
Ministers of State are entitled to hire two full-time drivers on a week-on, week-off basis.
Mr Coffey confirmed that his second driver is Mike O'Brien, who is from the minister's home town of Portlaw.
Mr O'Brien stood against Mr Coffey in the local elections in 1999, when Mr O'Brien was a Fianna Fáil candidate.
Elsewhere, Tánaiste Joan Burton has said that the appointment of Mr Quinlan was a matter for the minister.
Ms Burton said she was certainly very surprised at reported comments by the individual involved, whom she did not know.
She said that she had no involvement in or knowledge of the appointment.
The minister was asked whether she would be uncomfortable with Mr Coffey being driven by a director of a board for which he was responsible.
She said the particular issue had never arisen in her own case and she had never heard of it happening in other cases.
