Trepidation among TDs about Patrick O’Donovan's health after his latest scare
Some Fine Gael ministers have questioned whether Patrick O'Donovan's health would allow him to continue in his role as minister. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA
“Am I going to be a table quiz question? Am I going to be round four, question one: Who was the only TD to die in the Dáil?”
This was the main reflection of Fine Gael minister Patrick O’Donovan after he collapsed in the Dáil chamber in 2023. It came as a shock to many to hear that the always lively and argumentative minister TD had become so ill.
In many ways, it was the start of what would, unfortunately, become the starting point for Mr O’Donovan’s now very public health battle. The Limerick County TD has become increasingly open about his epilepsy, following his diagnosis over a decade ago.
In June 2023, Mr O’Donovan, then a junior minister, was having what he later described as “one of the most unstressed days that [he’d] ever had”.
He was taking questions in the Dáil when he suddenly collapsed. He lost his sight and his speech. The sitting was suspended, and an ambulance was called. Jack Chambers, a qualified doctor, and then minister Anne Rabbitte came to his assistance.
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“I was very lucky. I don't in any way understate how lucky I was, where it happened, when it happened, and who was around to look after me,” Mr O’Donovan later said.
The minister told the last Christmas that he had been diagnosed and misdiagnosed with epilepsy several times leading up to this. Doctors had told him that he was “working too hard”, or that he was “tired”, and he needed to “go home and get over it”.
After his collapse, he was brought by ambulance to a Dublin hospital, where he sought to be transferred to his own neurologist at Beaumont Hospital. He was told this was not possible and that they would check whether they had someone on call.
“A junior doctor came in to me and said ‘we don't have a neurologist on call at the moment. You don't need a neurologist anyway. There's nothing wrong with you. But we have a psychiatrist on call',” Mr O’Donovan said.
Mr O’Donovan described this as “rock bottom”.
After meeting with his own neurologist in Beaumont, he was diagnosed with deep frontal lobe epilepsy. Getting this diagnosis made it feel like “the bottom had fallen out of my world”.
Shortly after he was appointed arts minister in January 2025, an columnist suggested that his name had been “pulled out of Micheál Martin’s hat” and that those in the sector “would have been hoping” that Hildegarde Naughton had got his job as she had “at least been known to darken the doors of a theatre occasionally”.
Mr O’Donovan revealed his epilepsy diagnosis several months later.
His team regularly travel to locations before events to ensure there will be no overbearing lights. Photographers attending events are asked not to use a flash when photographing Mr O’Donovan.
In July 2026, he was hospitalised in Brussels and remained there for several days. He was later transferred home from Belgium on the Government jet. He took several weeks off work following the incident, returning at the start of the new political year in September.
Last week at a post-budget press conference, Mr O’Donovan developed a noticeable stammer halfway through taking questions from the media. Concerns were also expressed following a contribution in the Dáil shortly afterwards.
He was expected to travel to Strasbourg that evening on the Government jet, but this trip was subsequently cancelled as it was decided he was not well enough to travel.
Last weekend, reports appeared in several newspapers quoting unnamed Fine Gael ministers questioning whether his health would allow him to continue in his role, and whether he would survive a Cabinet reshuffle next November.
On his way into a meeting of EU Telecommunications ministers in Limerick on Tuesday, Mr O’Donovan accused colleagues of the “ultimate betrayal”.
Several hours later, Mr O’Donovan was removed from the University of Limerick in an ambulance after becoming unwell and was admitted to intensive care.
Despite him batting away suggestions that he was not well enough to continue in his role, his latest medical emergency has thrust the issue into the forefront of his colleagues' minds and conversations.
On Tuesday, many were talking privately about whether Mr O’Donovan needed to take time off to properly and fully recuperate.
Suggestions included making him a minister without a portfolio, similar to the arrangement put in place for Helen McEntee’s maternity leave, and splitting different aspects of his department between his Fine Gael ministerial colleagues.
Others suggested that Tánaiste Simon Harris, currently on paternity leave following the birth of his third child, may have to speak to Mr O’Donovan about his future.
In Limerick earlier this week before becoming unwell, Mr O’Donovan emphasised the importance of people with disabilities being represented in politics.
He insisted he would “gladly hand back the seal of office” if he believed he could not carry out his job as a Government minister. He said he has “no notion of going anywhere”.
The corridors of Leinster House are wondering if this can continue to be the case.
- Louise Burne, political correspondent
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