Minister for Communications Patrick O’Donovan has taken ill at an EU presidency event in Limerick.
A press conference planned for this afternoon has been cancelled. It is understood that the Minister has been hospitalised.
A spokesperson for O’Donovan said: “The Minister became unwell during the EU informal meeting at the University of Limerick and has been taken off site for assessment and treatment.”
O’Donovan had appeared shortly before 1pm at a so-called “family photograph” of the delegate ministers attending the informal meeting, standing alongside European Commmission executive vice president Henna Virkkunen for the photocall.
Earlier, O’Donovan hit back against critics within his own party, accusing those who commented on his health of “the ultimate in betrayal”.
Speaking in Limerick on Tuesday morning as he prepared to host an informal meeting of EU telecommunications ministers, O’Donovan responded to briefings against him in coverage of the budget rows he became embroiled in last week.
In addition to questions over his temperament, one Fine Gael TD was quoted at the weekend suggesting that people within the parliamentary party were questioning whether O’Donovan was healthy enough to continue in his role.
O’Donovan, who is Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport, was hospitalised after becoming unwell during an official trip to Brussels this summer.
He has previously spoken about his experience living with epilepsy, which he was diagnosed with more than 10 years ago.
O’Donovan reportedly cancelled a planned trip to Strasbourg last week after his team concluded that he was not well enough to travel. He met RTÉ executives the following day.
On Tuesday, O’Donovan criticised an “anonymous source on the front page of a reputable Sunday paper last week calling into question my health … that source was attributed to my own party”.
“Not only was that commentary a slap in the face of me, but it was also a slap in the face of the people who have to live with conditions far worse than mine and conditions far more difficult than mine.
“I have no difficulty what people think of me on a political basis – don’t get me wrong, I’ll hold my own with anybody, but leave my health out of it.”
He added: “Last Sunday wasn’t anything to do with epilepsy. Last Sunday was the ultimate in betrayal.” He said it was a betrayal not just of him, but of others with disabilities or neurological conditions.
O’Donovan has been at the centre of a post-budget controversy after first failing to secure funding to support his heavily-publicised “culture card” initiative for 16- and 17-year-olds, and then providing RTÉ with €20 million less in funding than agreed under the terms of a 2024 deal with the troubled national broadcaster.
After the budget, it emerged that O’Donovan had written to Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers warning him that without extra funding allocated to his department, several spending areas would suffer from cutbacks or shortfalls – including that the Government faced reneging on its agreement with RTÉ.
He ultimately secured an extra €21 million in funding for his department, but still left RTÉ short relative to the 2024 agreement that had guaranteed the broadcaster €260 million in funding next year – sparking a furious reaction in Montrose and an intense period of controversy, which had to be defused by the intervention of Coalition leaders.
This in turn spawned much media coverage and commentary over last weekend about O’Donovan, and other recent clashes he has had with stakeholder organisations or political colleagues.
O’Donovan told reporters on Tuesday that he was answerable to the voters of his Co Limerick constituency and to the Government. “Any day that I feel that I can’t continue in the role that I’m in, I’d gladly hand back that seal of office.”
Asked about the controversy with RTÉ, O’Donovan said he was not personally involved in the matter at present, leaving it to officials whose work is ongoing. He said he had “no notion of going anywhere” following the controversies of the last few days.