Minister for Communications Patrick O’Donovan to return to duties after illness

Minister for Communications Patrick O’Donovan is due to return to work on Monday following a period of illness.

O’Donovan’s department confirmed he would return on August 31st and is planning to travel to the European Parliament to appear before a committee on Tuesday.

On July 7th, O’Donovan was attending a cultural event in Brussels to mark the State’s presidency of the Council of the European Union when he became unwell and was hospitalised.

He remained under close medical supervision for a number of days before returning to Ireland on July 10th to recover at home.

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The Government said it expected O’Dononvan to return to work in September.

A spokesman for the Department of Communications said: “Minister O’Donovan will return on Monday next when he will be appearing before the ITRE [Industry, Research and Energy] Committee at the European Parliament on Tuesday, 1^st September.”

The European Parliament committee covers O’Donovan’s brief of digital infrastructure and telecommunications.

O’Donovan is also scheduled to appear at a conference on Online Safety for Children and Young People at Dublin Castle on September 10th and 11th as part of Ireland’s council presidency.

The Minister revealed last year that he had been diagnosed with epilepsy in 2016 and has been managing the condition ever since.

The Fine Gael politician has previously talked about how he experienced “violent episodes” in the run-up to the 2016 general election. He has also described how he sometimes struggled while speaking in media interviews or in the Dáil, as an episode could affect his speech.

Earlier this year, he told Newstalk his “worst nightmare” was that someone would question whether he was drunk if he suffered an episode during an interview or public appearance.

“The reason that I didn’t speak openly before 2025 about my epilepsy was I was terrified that people wouldn’t vote for me, and that my prospects of being promoted would hit the bin,” he said in the interview.

O’Donovan said his condition does not “impede” him once managed. He said he had been “ashamed” of his epilepsy because he was “ignorant of what it is to have a neurological condition”.