The actor who plays Nidge’s nemesis in the RTÉ crime series Love/Hate has said John McNulty’s appointment to a State board shortly before his nomination as a Seanad candidate showed disrespect for the artistic community.

Brían F O'Byrne, who features as Garda Det Insp Mick Moynihan, described the controversy as "depressing and enraging", and strongly criticised the Government and Minister for Arts Heather Humphreys on the eve of the Seanad byelection poll closure.

“I believe Minister Humphreys should be relieved of her duties. How she expects people in the artistic community to think she has their interests at heart would seem impossible,” he said.

Mr O’Byrne acknowledged that as he does not live in Ireland he did not know “the feeling on the ground”, but said any positive press in the US about Ireland was usually related to the arts.

“The arts and Irish artists are paraded to the world as ambassadors, and yet the new Minister seems to have shown utter disrespect to a community, I would imagine she would like to meet, for the first time it seems, on positive terms,” he said.

“Everything is ridiculous in McNultygate...” he added in an email to The Irish Times. “I find the whole affair depressing and enraging.”

Mr O’Byrne, who is from Mullagh in Co Cavan and lives in the US, has starred in the film Million Dollar Baby, directed by Clint Eastwood, and numerous Broadway productions.

“Heather Humphreys should just say she was told to appoint someone, she had no idea who he was, it was only going to be for a few days anyway, and they thought no one would notice,” Mr O’Byrne said.

“This man, a failed political candidate, was being given a Seanad seat because nobody gives a shit about the Seanad, and nobody cares about wasting money. Because this is how things work.”

Mr O’Byrne said Mr McNulty was a good businessman and community contributor, “and probably a great guy”, but claimed he would not have been suitable for the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Imma) or the Seanad.

“So if the Government will do this on something as ‘small’, what are they doing on bigger issues?”

Meanwhile, Fine Gael TD Dinny McGinley has confirmed he has voted for Mr McNulty despite the Donegal businessman’s appeal to Oireachtas members not to back him.

Mr McGinley, who is not expected to contest the next general election in Donegal South West, told the Donegal Democrat he knows of many other Oireachtas members who have also voted for Mr McNulty.

Ms Humphreys has repeatedly said she takes responsibility for and stands over her appointment of Mr McNulty to the Imma board.

She has insisted she appointed Mr McNulty and another Fine Gael member, Sheila O’Regan, to the art institution’s board “based on merit”.

Declining to name the Fine Gael official or officials who brought the candidates’ names to her attention, Ms Humphreys has said she “does not see any benefit out of making a scapegoat out of a party official” by putting a name into the public domain.

Controversy erupted when it emerged Mr McNulty had been nominated to the Imma board on September 12th, although Fine Gael denied this was done to beef up his qualifications to contest the Seanad’s Education and Cultural Panel.

He has since stepped down from Imma and has attempted to pull out of the Seanad byelection, but his name remains on the ballot paper, which cannot be changed.

The byelection is taking place to fill the vacancy caused by the election of Deirdre Clune of Fine Gael to the European Parliament. On the ballot paper, Mr McNulty is described as an Imma board member.