In a revealing interview, the Ireland AM presenter has confessed to "mothering" her husband, Waterford Fine Gael TD John Deasy. Deasy made headlines in 2004 for flouting the smoking ban in the Dail bar.

"I'm a bit clucky, I do spoil him rotten and do lots for him, " Derrane said in a newspaper interview yesterday.

However, Derrane confessed to one privilege her husband has not earned: "The one thing I won't do for him ever is iron shirts."

Derrane is currently living in Saggart, Co Dublin, and commutes to the TV3 studios in Ballymount, southwest Dublin. Deasy is based in his constituency in Dungarvan, Co Waterford, and works in the Dail three days a week.

Given their hectic work schedules, Derrane confessed that romance isn't always on the agenda.

"By the time John comes home from work, I'm in bed or drooling on the chair because of the hours I work.

I'm not much good for anything."

Deasy and Derrane met at a Fine Gael Christmas party three years ago.

"There were no skies opening or trumpets. . . he was just a guy at a party, " Derrane told the Irish Daily Star. The pair dated for a while and then split up, only to be reunited and engaged within five months.

Derrane, who was recently voted Best Dressed Woman by VIP magazine, revealed the stress she suffered when planning her wedding to Deasy last year in Rome.

"I organised it all myself; it's something I'd never undertake again, " she said.

"I was chain-smoking like a lunatic, and John and I had a big row the night before the wedding."

Despite such stress, Derrane maintained that she and Deasy are compatible. "John is much more definite than me, he's a Libra.

"He makes up his mind, that's the end of it and I go along with it."