Europe Affairs Minister Dick Roche has admitted he feared he would be shot when he was among nine people held hostage by an armed gang during a hotel and golf resort robbery.

Roche was leaving the five-star Marriott Druids Glen complex near Greystones, Co. Wicklow, after a morning swim on Monday when three men in balaclavas held a sawn-off shotgun at his back and frog-marched him back inside.

He was bundled with his driver and one other male and six female members of staff into a basement room.

Roche said after the incident, "The man with the gun was using me as a shield to go into the hotel. He had it in my back. I was worried going down the corridor and the stairs of the hotel that it could be discharged."

Roche continued, "Some of the young staff in the hotel were terribly upset. It was quite vicious. A young woman had a sawn-off shotgun three or four inches from her face. It was quite awful."

He described how the raid started. "I came out of the hotel and went out to my car. I was getting some papers in the back of the car. I just became aware of a fellow driving very close to the back of the car.

"I stepped back. I bumped into somebody and said, 'Excuse me.' Then I realized that the fellow was wearing a balaclava.

"There were three of them. All of them wore balaclavas and one of them had a sawn-off shotgun. The fellow with the gun said, 'Give me your money.' I said that all I had was what was in my pocket. I then realized that they must have thought there was a cash deposit coming out of the hotel. I said, 'I think you have the wrong person. I am just a client in the hotel.'

"As I walked up to the receptionist I told her not to be frightened, that there was a robbery going on. The poor kid was absolutely terrified. It was awful stuff."

No shots were fired and nobody was injured during the hold-up.

The hostages were initially forced into the manager's office, where about €20,000 in cash was stolen. Then they were ordered at gunpoint down two flights of stairs and locked into a strong room used for storing large amounts of money and valuables.

Roche said the gang did not recognize him as a member of the government. He urged the robbers to stay calm as they shouted a series of orders at the hotel staff.

On their way to the strong room, the hostages were manhandled and shouted at. Cell phones, including Roche's, were taken, but two hostages managed to keep theirs and phoned 999, the emergency number in Ireland.

Roche said, "We simply said there was a robbery in the Marriot Hotel that was still ongoing. The Gardai (police) arrived in record time but I'm afraid the gang had a getaway head-start of eight to 10 minutes."

Roche, who swims at the Druids Glen complex every morning, cancelled his engagements for the rest of the day. He was en route to a meeting at the European Commission offices in Dublin city when the raiders struck.

The hotel, set on the grounds of the 400-acre Druids Glen golf resort, is located just 20 miles south of Dublin. Known as the Augusta of Europe, the parkland course hosted the Irish Open golf championship for several years in the late 1990s.

Garda checkpoints and air units were scrambled within minutes of the hold-up and house-to-house checks were carried out in the area.