MICHAEL NOONAN HAS revealed he was hospitalised with pneumonia over the Christmas break.
The Finance Minister was speaking at the announcement of the exchequer returns for 2015 which show the State took in some €3.3 billion more than it expected.
Noonan had confirmed in a short statement on 28 December that he had been hospitalised over the Christmas break with “an infection involving fluid in the chest area”.
He underwent some medical procedures and said he was “well on the mend” prior to today’s cabinet meeting and the general election campaign.
Speaking to reporters in Dublin today, Noonan explained that a chest infection he had before Christmas failed to respond to antibiotics and subsequently developed into pneumonia.
“The infection didn’t respond to antibiotics so it developed into pneumonia. So I was hospitalised over the Christmas,” he said.
However the Fine Gael TD insisted that he is “back on the road again”.
Referring to his close working relationship with Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin, he added: “The double-act here continues!”
Noonan has suffered a series of health scares in recent years. In 2014 he underwent treatment for skin cancer after he found a lump on his arm.
While in February of last year he was treated for an eye-condition that, he later joked, made him look like Johnny Sexton.
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