Tánaiste Simon Harris has said there should never be a recurrence of anonymous comments made about the performance of Minister for Communications Patrick O’Donovan.
O’Donovan fell ill earlier this month amid a post-budget controversy about his handling of RTÉ’s funding allocation for 2027.
Newspaper coverage had included anonymous comments questioning his performance, but also citing questions from a Fine Gael minister and backbencher questioning whether his health would allow him to continue in his role.
O’Donovan has epilepsy and was hospitalised in Brussels after suffering a seizure this summer, after which he took several weeks off to convalesce.
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“This was a comment that should not have been made. It was a comment that caused significant hurt to Patrick. It was a comment that annoyed me as the leader of Fine Gael to see being made,” Harris said on Thursday.
The Tánaiste said he would be talking to party colleagues about the issue. “As a parliamentary party we’re talking about the need to never see a recurrence of this again.”
Fine Gael was a party “full of decent people”, Harris told RTÉ, adding that their priority was O’Donovan’s wellbeing.
He said he had made a statement while on paternity leave, making it clear that the party supported the Minister. “We support Patrick, we want Patrick to be well, we look forward to welcoming Patrick back,” Harris said.
In mid-October, after strongly criticising the anonymous briefings as “the ultimate in betrayal”, O’Donovan was hospitalised following a seizure that occurred as he hosted EU telecoms ministers at an event in the University of Limerick.
Since his hospitalisation, rumour and speculation has swirled in Leinster House about a call O’Donovan had with a senior Fine Gael figure on the day he fell ill.
On Wednesday, Harris confirmed he had spoken with O’Donovan that morning, saying it was a routine call and that he was regularly in touch with all his ministers – describing as “bizarre” any suggestion he had asked the Limerick TD to consider resignation.
When asked on Thursday about the content of the conversation he had with O’Donovan shortly before his collapse, Harris said he had many conversations with O’Donovan on a daily basis so it was not unusual that they had been speaking.
The Tánaiste said he had visited O’Donovan in hospital on his first day back from paternity leave, and on the second day had made the media statement confirming that he had been the person who spoke with O’Donovan the day he collapsed.
“I was on paternity leave for two weeks, and with the exception of issuing one public statement that I issued in consultation with his family to obviously send the best wishes of the entire Fine Gael party to Patrick, I was on paternity leave and I had other things to be doing for the last two weeks,” he told RTÉ Radio’s Today show.
“On my first day back, I visited Patrick. On my second day back, I obviously spoke with the media as I do on a regular basis on the way into Cabinet. I’m very happy, very happy to do that.”
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When pushed about the content of the phone call on the day O’Donovan collapsed, the Tánaiste said it was a “bizarre” situation where he was now expected to produce call logs about whom he spoke to and when.
“I’m not getting involved in the politics of ‘let him deny it’. Patrick’s a friend of mine, he’s a good colleague of mine. I’m the leader of my political party,” Harris said.
“I speak to colleagues on a very regular basis. If I was to speak to colleagues on a regular basis and then provide a readout of every call, it’d be very difficult to do my job.
“But what I have been clear on is that the characterisation of the call isn’t reflective of the reality.”
The statements made by O’Donovan had not been unusual for him. “Patrick is somebody who always speaks his mind. He’s known for being very blunt. And the statements that I issued, tried to really capture the hurt that I know Patrick felt. Because Patrick O’Donovan is doing an excellent job in Government, despite having had to deal with the health issues that he’s dealing with.”
It was understandable that O’Donovan had been upset by the anonymous comments, Harris said. “And rightly so. And to be honest, I was annoyed by it too.”
He said he had spoken to O’Donovan about the comments, but he was “not going to provide a running commentary on all my conversations with my colleagues, other than to say I have a duty of care, as the leader of my party, to my colleagues, and Patrick’s wellbeing and Patrick’s recovery is my priority”.
