Ivan Yates has admitted he hasn’t spoken to former co-star Matt Cooper almost a year after a row over the presidential election.

The former Agricultural Minister was dropped immediately from their Path to Power podcast that he co-hosted with Matt, following revelations that he was secretly working as a media campaign coach for Fianna Fail’s presidential candidate, Jim Gavin.

The partnership fell apart due to a major controversy involving political neutrality and undisclosed conflicts of interest.

Speaking ahead of the launch of his new book, The Game of Life and How to Win It, Ivan reflected on his fallout with the Today FM star and revealed he hasn’t spoken to him since he left the podcast.

Speaking to The Sunday Independent, Ivan said: ‘Put it like this. The whole point of the book is to actually keep that firmly in the rearview mirror. As it happened I haven’t, to answer your question, but to be honest with you, I absolutely have moved on.

‘I took a decision in August of last year that the podcast was too time-consuming [and] was putting me into conflicts which I did not enjoy.’

He said that what was originally a six-month commitment had become two years, adding: ‘So really, from that point of view there was no difficulty with Matt Cooper because we were going our separate ways in any event’.

But asked if he regrets how the friendship or collaboration with Matt ended, Ivan said: ‘Well, it was always more of a professional association, on The Tonight Show and so on.

‘I say in the book that if you harbour any resentment, or if you don’t get over things, you’ll suffer a lot more than the other person. So I’m actually quite systematic about training my mind to move on to the next thing and the next thing is The Game of Life.’