An Irish government minister has got his knickers in a twist – over Rosanna Davidson’s Playboy shoot.

Meanwhile it has been revealed that the former Miss World will earn $500,000 for her strip off

Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar shifted uneasily in his seat on live television when he was asked about the topless photos of Chris de Burgh’s daughter.

TV3 presenter Vincent Browne asked Varadkar for his thoughts on the front page of the Irish Sun newspaper which featured one of the former Miss World’s raunchy shots.

Varadkar responded: “Well I wouldn’t, eh, I wouldn’t do it myself. No I haven’t been asked so ...”

Varadkar then added: “Ah look it, she’s a free individual and she’s free to do whatever she likes but I wouldn’t like it if it was my sister because those pictures are around forever, you know?

“I wouldn’t like, like now what’s going to be happening is that people are going to be looking at those pictures on their iPhone and giggling over them. I just think it’s a little bit demeaning.”

The Irish Sun also reports that Davidson is laughing all the way to the bank after the Playboy shoot.

She received a reported $500,000 for the photo-shoot which has attracted huge interest on the paper’s website www.thesun.ie.

The paper reports a surge in traffic from all across the globe with visitors from Bahrain, Kuwait, South Korea and Ghana logging on to see the photos.

It is also reported that the 28-year-old has received work offers from across the globe.

A source revealed: “It’s even bigger than Rosanna could have imagined.

“She knows she will have to strike while the iron is hot, and Rosanna is looking forward to a busy couple of months ahead.”

Davidson admitted: “Part of the reason for doing the shoot was to plan for when no one wants to see pictures of me.”

She is expected to be invited to meet Playboy boss Hugh Hefner in Los Angeles in a few weeks.