Justine Delaney-Wilson, who penned The High Society:

Drugs And The Irish Middle Class, claimed she met the minister in Buswells Hotel across from the Dail in October 2006.

Speaking to the Sunday Tribune yesterday, she would not confirm whether the alleged minster held a junior or senior government position in 2006 or whether he was currently serving in a government ministerial role.

"Everyone I spoke to for the book is entitled to privacy and I do not want to fuel this guesswho game by providing more information, " she said. "If people want to say this is a load of rubbish, that's fine."

Last week, Fine Gael TD Simon Coveney asked the Taoiseach if he was going to quiz his cabinet colleagues about the mystery drug user.

The minister with responsibility for drugs, Pat Carey, has also publicly called on DelaneyWilson to inform the gardai of the person's identity.

In the book, in a chapter entitled 'Our Pillars', the minister allegedly says to Wilson in Buswells Hotel: "Yes, I do take drugs . . . just coke though . . . regularly enough. I'm certainly not the only one around here that does."

During her two-year research, Wilson also spoke to other drug users such as a parish priest, a Dublin judge, a nun, numerous doctors, a nurse and an airline pilot.