The Taoiseach has again insisted he had NO role whatsoever in John McNulty's appointment to the board of IMMA.

The cronyism controversy has been revived after Enda Kenny last night said he had made the appointment - which contradicted previous statements.

But this lunchtime he rowed back from his TV comments - and now says he had no involvement in the scandal.

When the issue first arose in September 2014 the Taoiseach said only that he was responsible for choosing McNulty to run for the Seanad - which McNulty was nominated for, just six days after his IMMA appointment. His Seanad nomination paper cited his IMMA role as a qualification for the Seanad position.

At the time, however, the Taoiseach said the appointment to IMMA was not his doing, and was made independently by the arts minister Heather Humphreys who was exercising her own rights and without any instruction from him.

That explanation appeared to be undermined last night when the Taoiseach said he "made an appointment" that didn't need to be made.

Our political correspondent Gavan Reilly reports: