{"id":667831,"date":"2026-10-28T13:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T13:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/667831\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T13:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T13:32:10","slug":"simon-harris-confirms-he-phoned-patrick-odonovan-before-minister-fell-ill-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/667831\/","title":{"rendered":"Simon Harris confirms he phoned Patrick O\u2019Donovan before Minister fell ill \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris<\/a> has confirmed he spoke by telephone to Patrick O\u2019Donovan<\/a> some hours before the Minister for Culture fell ill at an EU conference in Limerick. <\/p>\n

However, he denied asking O\u2019Donovan to resign during the call, saying it was a routine conversation and adding that it was \u201cbizarre\u201d for anyone to suggest the call had anything to do with O\u2019Donovan\u2019s position at the Cabinet.<\/p>\n

The Fine Gael Minister was treated in the intensive care ward for several days after he was taken ill. In comments to journalists that morning, O\u2019Donovan had criticised what he said were briefings against him, reported to be from a Fine Gael<\/a> Cabinet Minister, that questioned whether his health would allow him to remain in Cabinet after next year\u2019s expected reshuffle. The story ran on news bulletins and online for the morning.<\/p>\n

A few hours later, O\u2019Donovan stepped out of the EU meeting to take a call, according to reports, from a senior Government figure. Some time later, journalists were told that the afternoon press conference had been cancelled. The Minister was taken to hospital in an ambulance.<\/p>\n

\"MinisterMinister Culture Patrick O’Donovan. Photograph: Sam Boal\/Collins Photos <\/p>\n

There had been considerable speculation about who O\u2019Donovan spoke to during that phone call and what was discussed. Asked repeatedly last this week if the T\u00e1naiste had spoken to him, a spokesman for Harris declined to say yes or no.<\/p>\n

On his first day back in Government after taking paternity leave, Harris spoke to the media on his way into Government Buildings on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

Asked whether he had spoken to O\u2019Donovan on October 13th, he said: \u201cI did speak to him on Tuesday during that conference. Conversations that I have with my Ministers are private. The way I\u2019ve seen them characterised is inaccurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Leave my health out of it\u2019: Anonymous briefings, a defiant response and a dramatic turn of eventsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In response to a follow up-question asking whether he had asked O\u2019Donovan to resign, Harris said it was a \u201cbizarre\u201d question. <\/p>\n

When asked whether his conversation had been nothing more than a routine call, Harris replied: \u201cYes.\u201d <\/p>\n

Asked to confirm it was not the case, as some reporting had suggested, that the phone call and the subsequent health episode were connected, and that O\u2019Donovan was told his position was no longer tenable, Harris replied: \u201cNot only am I saying that\u2019s not the case, Patrick O\u2019Donovan will say that\u2019s not the case. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not the case. Read my statement. This is what happens when there\u2019s a political void. I was on paternity leave. With the greatest of respect to [the media], I had no intention of breaking my paternity leave to talk to any of you. I make no apology for that at all, and I like to think we have come a little bit further as a country in terms of respecting that. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no silence. There was a man on paternity leave with their family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris repeated he was looking forward to welcoming O\u2019Donovan, whom he characterised as a close friend and colleague, back to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s somebody who I\u2019ve appointed on two occasions to Cabinet … He\u2019s somebody doing a demanding and important job,\u201d he said. \u201cI have frequent conversations with all of my Ministers. It\u2019d be bizarre if I didn\u2019t. I talk to lots of colleagues on a daily basis, on a recurring basis, and those conversations, by their very nature, are private.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Senior civil servant to take charge of department during Patrick O\u2019Donovan\u2019s sick leaveOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He said he broke his paternity to issue a statement to support O\u2019Donovan after the health episode and did it in consultation with his family. <\/p>\n

He said a secondary reason for issuing the statement was because of the anonymous briefing against O\u2019Donovan from a Fine Gael Minister to a newspaper the previous weekend, which Harris said had annoyed him. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know that had caused hurt, and I wanted to vocalise that as well. I welcome the fact that our executive council has also endorsed my statement in relation to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elaborating a little later on the briefing, he said. \u201cI do know those comments hurt him. They hurt him badly, and you don\u2019t again need to take my word for that. I know that from my conversations with him, but I also know it from the conversations that he had in Limerick with the media, and the conversations that I had with him over a sustained period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris has confirmed he spoke by telephone to Patrick O\u2019Donovan some hours before the Minister for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,6232,70,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-667831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-patrick-o-donovan","tag-simon-harris","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}