Simon Harris confirms he phoned Patrick O’Donovan before Minister fell ill

Tánaiste Simon Harris has confirmed he spoke by telephone to Patrick O’Donovan some hours before the Minister for Culture fell ill at a EU conference in Limerick. However, he denied asking O’Donovan to resign during the call, saying it was a routine conversation and adding that it was “bizarre” for anyone to suggest the call had anything to do with O’Donovan’s position at the Cabinet.The Fine Gael Minister was treated in the intensive care ward for several days after he was taken ill. In comments to journalists that morning, O’Donovan had criticised what he said were briefings against him, reported to be from a Fine Gael Cabinet Minister, that questioned whether his health would allow him to remain in Cabinet after next year’s expected reshuffle. The story ran on news bulletins and online for the morning.A few hours later, O’Donovan stepped out of the EU meeting to take a call, according to reports, from a senior Government figure. Some time later, journalists were told that the afternoon press conference had been cancelled. The Minister was taken to hospital in an ambulance.READ MOREThere had been considerable speculation about who O’Donovan spoke to during that phone call and what was discussed. Asked repeatedly last this week if the Tánaiste had spoken to him, a spokesman for Harris declined to say yes or no.On his first day back in Government after taking paternity leave, Harris spoke to the media on his way into Government Buildings on Wednesday. Asked whether he had spoken to O’Donovan on October 13th, he said: “I did speak to him on Tuesday during that conference. Conversations that I have with my Ministers are private. The way I’ve seen them characterised is inaccurate.”In response to a follow up-question asking whether he had asked O’Donovan to resign, Harris said it was a “bizarre” question. When asked whether his conversation had been nothing more than a routine call, Harris replied: “Yes.” Asked to confirm it was not the case, as some reporting had suggested, that the phone call and the subsequent health episode were connected, and that O’Donovan was told his position was no longer tenable, Harris replied: “Not only am I saying that’s not the case, Patrick O’Donovan will say that’s not the case. “That’s not the case. Read my statement. This is what happens when there’s a political void. I was on paternity leave. With the greatest of respect to [the media], I had no intention of breaking my paternity leave to talk to any of you. I make no apology for that at all, and I like to think we have come a little bit farther as a country in terms of respecting that. “There was no silence. There was a man on paternity leave with their family.”Harris repeated he was looking forward to welcoming O’Donovan, whom he characterised as a close friend and colleague, back to work.“He’s somebody who I’ve appointed on two occasions to Cabinet ... He’s somebody doing a demanding and important job,” he said. “I have frequent conversations with all of my Ministers. It’d be bizarre if I didn’t. I talk to lots of colleagues on a daily basis, on a recurring basis, and those conversations, by their very nature, are private.”He said he broke his paternity to issue a statement to support O’Donovan after the health episode and did it in consultation with his family. He said a secondary reason for issuing the statement was because of the anonymous briefing against O’Donovan from a Fine Gael Minister to a newspaper the previous weekend, which Harris said had annoyed him. “I know that had caused hurt, and I wanted to vocalise that as well. I welcome the fact that our executive council has also endorsed my statement in relation to that.”Elaborating a little later on the briefing, he said. “I do know those comments hurt him. They hurt him badly, and you don’t again need to take my word for that. I know that from my conversations with him, but I also know it from the conversations that he had in Limerick with the media, and the conversations that I had with him over a sustained period of time.”