Simon Coveney says his phone was used to contact some of his fellow EU counterparts after it was hacked last year

The Foreign Affairs Minister says the matter was dealt with swiftly and the hack led to him being more careful about the security of his texts.

The Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee said the minister still had questions to answer over his texts about the Katherine Zappone UN appointment.

Minister Coveney's written to Charlie Flanagan to insist any suggestion he was trying to keep his texts to the Tanaiste secret are "plain wrong".