Naughten took FG expulsion ‘like a man’
Mr Naughten now faces removal from his post as chair of the health committee after voting against the Government over plans to close down services at a major hospital in his Roscommon constituency.
Chief Whip Paul Kehoe removed the party whip from Mr Naughten — but left open the door for him to return to the fold at some point in the future.
“He took it like a man would take it,” Mr Kehoe said after Mr Naughten angered colleagues by siding with a Sinn Féin motion demanding Ministers lived up to election commitments to retain emergency services at a number of hospitals, including the Roscommon one.
Fellow constituency FG TD Frank Feighan voted with the Government and claimed he had received a death threat in the run-up to the showdown.
“The night before I got a phone call saying a man would put a bullet in my head, people spat at me,” he told RTÉ.
Mr Naughten’s rebellion was a major embarrassment for the Government as it battles opposition charges that it deliberately mislead voters regarding health services in the general election campaign.
“My problem was that I had given my word based on a commitment that I had been given by the party. And I couldn’t in all honesty face the people of Roscommon and tell them that I was turning my back on them.
“That was the position I was left in, the most difficult decision that I have had to make,” he said.
Mr Feighan said he would not be able to stand by his pre-election promise to safeguard services at the hospital because it would have been detrimental to the country.
“This was a 2-foot wave, there’s 5-metre waves coming down the line. I decided that if I had resigned the fate of this Government would have lasted about a year because there’re a lot of issues coming down the road and I think that we need to hold strong,” he said.
