Fianna Fáil's deputy leader Dara Calleary has said he was angry at not being given a senior ministry.
Instead Taoiseach Micheál Martin appointed him as Government Chief Whip, who will sit at Cabinet without a vote.
Mr Calleary has admitted being disappointed, but said he still holds out hope of a ministry someday.
He told Midwest Radio how the conversation with Mr Martin went.
"There weren't any other jobs on the table offered to me.
"We had a very difficult conversation - I told him I was disappointed, I had hoped to lead a department, that's always been my ambition and it will happen, it will absolutely happen.
"But I am going to take on the job that I've been given.
"And I will be sitting at the Cabinet table, I will be a voice for the west at that Cabinet table".
He said he has heard the voices of people annoyed that there is no senior minister for much of the west of Ireland.
"I hear that anger, I understand that anger, I'm going to take that anger on and turn it into action.
"I'm going to take that anger on and let it drive me on around the Cabinet table to turn that into action - to actually show that at the end of this Government's term, that we delivered into the regions."
