Government to decide next whether to fill envoy role after Zappone withdrawal 

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney with Katherine Zappone: Job was not invented for her, he says. Picture: Gareth Chaney 

The Government will next month decide whether to appoint a replacement for the role of UN special envoy on freedom of opinion and expression.

Former Minister for Children Katherine Zappone had been nominated to take the role at the end of July, but withdrew from the €15,000 a year role on Wednesday amid controversy over the manner of her appointment and around an event she held in the Merrion Hotel in Dublin days before it went to Cabinet.