MR Alan Dukes told The Irish Times yesterday he would be "happy to be in Cabinet again".
The Minister designate for Transport, Energy and Communications added: "One could have wished for more agreeable circumstances, but that's outside my control."
When it was put to him that Mr Bruton had behaved generously in offering him the job, in view of their rivalry, he responded: "What rivalry?" and added: "The Taoiseach rang me and asked me if I would take the position and I said to him immediately that I would". Referring to the outgoing minister, Mr Lowry, he said: "Personally I'm very sorry for him and the way that it's happened."
Mr Dukes said there was "a real danger that we're getting into a situation of trial by media, which is nearly an unwinnable situation these days".
He acknowledged that people "have a right to know what's going on" but there were times "when the answer cannot be produced on the tip of one's fingers, understandably".
Mr Lowry had resigned "both quickly and honourably", but Mr Dukes did not wish to comment in detail on the circumstances which led to his departure. "I don't know any more about this than there is in the papers and I feel that I don't know very much about it."
Mr Dukes's appointment has yet to be formally approved by the Dail and he assumed Fianna Fail would push it to a vote. Pointing out that it was "early days", he was reluctant to discuss his new role. In more general terms, being a cabinet minister meant "a hell of a lot of work, mostly" because there was "direct involvement in a huge range of things, especially in that Department it's very wide".
His elevation means someone will have to replace him as chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Foreign Affairs Committee. "It was a very interesting position and we've done a lot in the committee. I had a lot more plans for it, too, but obviously that will be up to my successor, whoever it is."
He will also have to give up his extra parliamentary position as chairman of the Irish Council of the European Movement.
The former Fine Gael leader pointed to yesterday's IMS poll in the Sunday Independent to show that the party's recent "run of bad luck" did not seem to have adversely affected public opinion. He said political activists and people in the media sometimes saw things differently from the general public.