Limerick Minister Patrick O'Donovan accuses Cabinet colleagues of 'ultimate in betrayal'

MINISTER Patrick O’Donovan has spoken out about the “ultimate betrayal” of fellow party members speaking anonymously about his health, leading to a front page story in The Sunday Times.

Speaking to reporters this Tuesday morning, October 13, ahead of a meeting of EU telecommunications ministers at the University of Limerick, the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport described the incident as “a slap in the face”.

Minister O’Donovan criticised the act of “bringing a person’s health into public discourse in the manner in which it was”, adding that it was something he hadn’t seen before and described it as “quite hurtful”.

“I came out, for want of a better word, with regards to my epilepsy, for very good reason. I didn’t want to have a situation where, when I did stutter, that someone would accuse me of, for instance, being drunk.

“So when I read an anonymous source on the front page of a reputable Sunday paper last week, calling into question my health, particularly given the fact that that source is attributed to my own party, and particularly given the fact that we have done so much in the area of disability and inclusion.”

He continued: “I did what I did to show young men and women, and not-so-young men and women that even if you have a disability or a neurological condition, that you can work in government and that you can be part of government, but it does require supports.”

The Limerick minister described the commentary as “a slap in the face to me, but it was also a slap in the face to people who have to live with conditions far worse than mine and conditions far more difficult than mine”

He continued: “We can have all the parades and all the flags and all the days and we can wear all of the socks that we want, but at the end of the day, when an unnamed anonymous source goes low like that, I think it’s a sad day for politics in Ireland.

“We said before that we hadn’t enough women in politics, we certainly don’t have enough people of colour, and we want to try and get people with disabilities into politics - how could you attract somebody with a disability or a neurological condition into politics if this is what they’re going to read off the front page of a mainstream Irish paper?”

Minister O’Donovan explained that he has “no difficulty” with what people think of him on a political basis, but added, “leave my health out of it”.

He said that he doesn’t know why his Cabinet colleagues did it and doesn’t understand “why anybody would go to the level of attacking a person based on their health”.

The minister added: “I purposefully spoke at length to the media about what it’s like to be an epileptic, what it’s like to have a neurological condition, what it’s like to receive a diagnosis and what that diagnosis means on a day-to-day basis.”

“Some days are bad for me, and other days are excruciating in terms of what my life is like. Last Sunday wasn’t anything to do with epilepsy, last Sunday was the ultimate in betrayal. I think it’s a betrayal, not just of me, to be quite honest about it, I can get on with it, but for men and women in this country who have to live with life-changing, life-altering, life-limiting conditions and who received diagnoses way worse than mine.

“Reading the front page of last week’s paper, to them, says, while we have come a long way, there still is a very ignorant group of people in this country who think it’s okay to have a go at people based on their disability.”

He concluded: “My health is my health, and it’s private and it’s personal and I have spoken about it. I have been elected in this building on a number of occasions by the people of County Limerick, they know my health, they know my limitations, probably better than anybody, and they returned me to the Dáil at the last election with nearly 12,000 votes. They’re the first group of people that I am answerable to. The second group of people that I am answerable to are my colleagues in government, having been appointed by the President on a nomination of the Taoiseach.

“Any day that I feel that I can’t continue in the role that I am in, I’ll gladly hand back that seat of office but while I have that seat of office, I am not only there to carry out my duty as Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport, but I also feel that I have a role and a responsibility to the people in this country that are carrying disabilities, neurological conditions and life-limiting and life-altering conditions, who we say we want to be included, and at the first drop of a hat then, an anonymous source says, ‘Well, you’re really not included’.”