Arts Minister Heather Humphreys has said that she still stands over the appointment of John McNulty to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
Minister Humphreys has insisted that she made the appointment based on merit - and not for political advantage.
Mr McNulty was a director of the museum for just six days before then citing this position as grounds to run for a seat in the Seanad on behalf of Fine Gael.
After a huge political backlash, he later resigned as a director and eventually withdrew from the Seanad campaign.
This evening Minister Humphreys insisted that Mr McNulty was qualified for the role.
"I just want to say that I appointed John McNulty and [historian] Sheila O’Regan on merit, and I stand over that decision," she said.
"I'm committed to using the new system through stateboards.ie and I have written to all of the chairpersons of the national cultural institutions and I asked them for a skillset required by them for people that would sit on their board."