The Taoiseach's former special adviser, Mr Paddy Duffy, said last night he had no regrets about the way he was forced to resign the position last June following conflict of interest allegations.
In his first public comments since, Mr Duffy said he was happy he did the right thing in resigning after it emerged he was a director of a company which advised NTL on its purchase of Cablelink from two State companies.
"Politics is the school of hard knocks. I am very well able for them," he told The Irish Times.
Mr Duffy confirmed he has established a public affairs business under the name The Right Word Company and has six clients. He said he would not be seeking consultancy work from Government Departments or semi-state companies.
"I am working with a small group of chief executives and chairmen of private companies on short to medium-term strategy, new products and marketing plans. I have as much work as I can cope with at this stage and I am not actively seeking new clients," he said.
He declined to name his client companies.
Since his resignation, Mr Duffy has been working on his new business from his north Dublin home, where the company will be based.
"I am very happy with my new work and am very involved in it," he said. "I am in good form and am looking forward to working hard."
It emerged last June that Mr Duffy, a senior member of the political staff in Mr Ahern's office, had been a director of Dillon Consultants since last December.
In his resignation statement last night he said he had had no involvement in NTL's bid for Cablelink.
NTL bought Cablelink in May from RTE and Telecom Eireann for £535 million. Mr Duffy said in his resignation statement that he had signed documentation last year to make him a director of Dillon Consultants. He had originally intended to leave his post as special adviser to the Taoiseach in December 1998 and came to an agreement on this with Dillon Consultants.
Mr Duffy said he then changed his mind and through a "series of misunderstandings" on his part he was still registered as a non-executive director.
In his statement he said he believed his continued presence on the Taoiseach's staff might have created a "distraction which would not contribute to his work".
Asked last night if he felt hard done by, Mr Duffy said: "I want to leave some space before I talk in detail about what happened in June."