Media minister Patrick O’Donovan has been flown home to Ireland on the Government’s private jet after he was hospitalised in Brussels on Tuesday.

The jet departed the Irish Air Corps base at Casement Aerodrome in west Dublin around 8pm Friday evening, bound for Brussels, and left Brussels just two hours later.

It is understood a National Ambulance Service medic and a doctor were on board. Mr O’Donovan has spoken about being diagnosed with epilepsy in 2016.

The Media Minister collapsed in the Dáil in 2023, and this latest event has Fine Gael colleagues worried about the toll that his work schedule is taking on his health.

After a query from the Irish Daily Mail on Thursday, a spokeswoman said: ‘I can confirm that the minister became unwell in Brussels on Tuesday night and was taken to hospital. ‘He remains under close medical observation. We ask you to respect his privacy and that of his family.’

When disclosing his epilepsy diagnosis in interviews last year, Mr O’Donovan said he thought he was ‘going to die’ when he collapsed in the Dáil.

He is the Minister for Culture, Communications and Media and will have seen his already busy schedule further affected by Ireland’s EU presidency. Senior Government officials and ministers who spoke to the Mail are ‘concerned’ for his ‘long-term health’.

‘Patrick has spoken very publicly about his epilepsy, and we have been concerned for him for a while,’ said a fellow minister, adding: ‘This EU presidency has placed additional pressures on us all, and that’s fine. ‘But when someone collapses like this, it is a big scare.