The Kerry South TD, Mr Jackie Healy-Rae, was stable and comfortable in Limerick Regional Hospital last night after he collapsed on a train journey to the Dail. The Independent deputy from Kilgarvan was taken ill on the 7.30 a.m. train from Tralee to Dublin yesterday morning.
He was taken to Limerick Regional Hospital at 11.25 a.m. by ambulance from Limerick Junction with a suspected cardiac problem.
Mr Healy-Rae was reported to have been complaining of pains during the journey from Tralee. He was attended by a doctor on the train and by a local doctor, and was able to walk to an ambulance which was already at the scene as it had been called to Limerick Junction to attend an accident.
Sources close to the deputy said he had been going "at a hectic pace" since he was elected to the Dail in June.
Mr Healy-Rae is to undergo tests. His family were at his bedside yesterday.
The 66-year-old deputy joins the Tralee train at Killarney every Tuesday morning. Iarnrod Eireann's stationmaster at Killarney, Mr Mick Leahy, said that he gave him his ticket yesterday morning and added: "He was in great form as usual."
A former Fianna Fail councillor, Mr Healy-Rae ran as an Independent in the June general election after failing to secure a party nomination. He has been a member of Kerry County Council since 1973 and is the father of six adult children. He has frequently been local director of elections for Fianna Fail and was described yesterday as an "extremely hard worker, who works day and night". "He is known to be a seven-days-a-week man and never says no to anyone," one constituent said.
A biography of him, The Mighty Healy-Rae, published by Marino Books and written by Donal Hickey, who is the Examiner's staff journalist covering Kerry, is expected to be in the bookshops next week.