Taoiseach Bertie Ahern says Fianna Fáil is going to monitor closely the situation involving a Dublin councillor who has said he was the subject of blackmail attempts over photographs that appeared in weekend newspapers.
Dublin city councillor Liam Kelly has said the photographs were staged by people in an attempt to extort money from him. He has also denied using illegal drugs and has reported the alleged extortion attempt to Santry Garda station in Dublin.
The photographs of Mr Kelly, which were taken by a mobile telephone at a private party, show him hunched over a white powder substance and holding a rolled piece of paper.
In a statement on Sunday, Mr Kelly said he had been "the subject of a very serious extortion attempt by the parties who have staged and taken the photographs.
"This included a demand with menaces to me that a substantial sum of money be paid to the perpetrators. I quite rightly refused and reported the matter to gardaí.
"This extortion attempt is now the subject of a criminal investigation, something which refrains me from commenting on this matter any further in case that process becomes damaged.
"Furthermore, I wish to state that I am not a drug user and blood and urine tests could prove this."
At the opening of a refurbished hotel near Killarney yesterday, Mr Ahern said he was aware of Mr Kelly's statement. "I note what he had said but you know how against drugs, in any form, I am," he said.
He said Fianna Fáil general secretary Seán Dorgan had been in contact with Mr Kelly, but he declined to comment on the politician's future in the party. "We're now awaiting the guards' investigation and we are watching the matter very closely," he added.
"All we are saying about his statement is that we note it - I really don't know the circumstances, I abhor drugs - the use of them in any form. So we just have to find, to get to the bottom of it. The party are going to closely monitor it - it won't be just dropped. We deem it a serious matter."
Mr Kelly, a former students union activist and public relations consultant from Glasnevin, has been a councillor on Dublin City Council since 2004 when he was elected to the Finglas area.
He has also been working as a fundraiser for a trust in Dublin City University and was until recently working for Dublin North East TD Martin Brady as a constituency adviser and assistant.
Mr Kelly, who is in his mid-30s and is seen as being a potential future TD, could not be contacted yesterday.