INDEPENDENT TD Michael Healy-Rae is at home in his Kerry South constituency coming to terms with the health scare he suffered in the Dáil on Friday when he was suddenly taken ill, writes Patsy McGarry.
"I'm never sick. I don't even get colds," he told The Irish Timeslast night, so he "got a bit of fright".
What happened was the result “of a combination of things”, he said, and that “stress might have been a contributing factor”.
He was “looking forward to getting back to work” and was “very grateful to Dr Reilly, to everyone who helped me at Leinster House, in the ambulance and at St James’s Hospital”.
He said he does not remember much of what happened.
“The last thing I remember is Dr Reilly taking my pulse and me telling him I’m staying to vote [on the Social Welfare Bill] and him telling me I was staying where I was,” he said.
Shortly before falling ill, he had made an impassioned criticism of the Government’s budget cuts and then became involved in a heated row with Government TDs.
Mr Healy-Rae then went to the canteen and returned shortly after but complained of feeling unwell.