Mr John Waters is to continue as a columnist with The Irish Times, following a meeting yesterday with the editor, Ms Geraldine Kennedy.
An agreed statement said there was "a frank exchange of views" at the four-hour meeting, also attended by the deputy editor, Mr Paul O'Neill, and the Irish secretary of the National Union of Journalists, Mr Seamus Dooley.
The meeting was arranged after Mr Waters received a letter from Ms Kennedy at the weekend, in which she said she was "relieving you of any further necessity to contribute to The Irish Times".
The letter was prompted by remarks made by Mr Waters during an interview on RTÉ Radio 1's News at One last week, and in particular his suggestion that Ms Kennedy had been "compromised" as editor.
The radio interview concerned a decision by The Irish Times to withhold a column he wrote about remuneration packages paid to the newspaper's executive directors and to its former editor, Mr Conor Brady.
The agreed statement issued after yesterday's meeting said Mr Waters "regretted that the use by him of the word 'compromised' in that interview had been taken to apply to the personal or professional integrity of the editor. That was not his intention."
The statement added: "Mr Waters acknowledged that Ms Kennedy had always exercised her role as editor in an appropriate manner, in accordance with the laws of libel and the requirement to adhere to the highest standards of accuracy and good taste."
"He accepted that the editor had applied these criteria to the column submitted by him for publication on November 10th."
In the statement, Ms Kennedy "stated that her differences with Mr Waters did not arise from his decision to comment publicly on her editorial judgement, but from his comments in the RTÉ interview".
Yesterday's agreement came two days after Mr Waters was informed by Ms Kennedy that his services were no longer required.
Mr Dooley welcomed the outcome of what he called a "very civilised and very constructive meeting", and said it would now permit all parties to concentrate on the NUJ's request for further details of the directors' remuneration. Mr Dooley said he expected the information to be made available by newspaper management later this week.
