diff --git a/src/main/java/org/codehaus/mojo/flatten/FlattenMojo.java b/src/main/java/org/codehaus/mojo/flatten/FlattenMojo.java
index 1962a3fb..56c462b3 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/codehaus/mojo/flatten/FlattenMojo.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/codehaus/mojo/flatten/FlattenMojo.java
@@ -364,7 +364,7 @@ public class FlattenMojo
      * @since 1.2.8
      */
     @Parameter( property = "flatten.dependency.keepComments", required = false , defaultValue = "false")
-    private Boolean keepCommentsInPom;
+    private boolean keepCommentsInPom;
 
     @Component
     private DependencyResolver dependencyResolver;
@@ -397,7 +397,7 @@ public void execute()
 
         File originalPomFile = this.project.getFile();
         KeepCommentsInPom commentsOfOriginalPomFile = null;
-        if (isKeepCommentsInPom()) {
+        if (keepCommentsInPom) {
         	commentsOfOriginalPomFile = KeepCommentsInPom.create(getLog(), originalPomFile);
         }
         Model flattenedPom = createFlattenedPom( originalPomFile );
@@ -1235,23 +1235,6 @@ public boolean isUpdatePomFile()
         }
     }
 
-    /**
-     * @return <code>true</code> if the generated flattened POM shall have the comments of the original file
-     *         <code>false</code> will remove the comments.
-     */
-    public boolean isKeepCommentsInPom()
-    {
-
-        if ( this.keepCommentsInPom == null )
-        {
-            return false;
-        }
-        else
-        {
-            return this.keepCommentsInPom.booleanValue();
-        }
-    }
-
     /**
      * This class is a simple SAX handler that extracts the first comment located before the root tag in an XML
      * document.