Willie Penrose recovering after Dáil health scare

Westmeath TD Willie Penrose is recovering from a health scare at the Dail last Thursday, but said he"s looking forward to 'returning to the fray' shortly. The Labour politician from Ballynacargy is currently following doctors" orders to take few days" rest. He spoke in the Dail chamber and voted during a debate on the budget cuts in education last Thursday afternoon, but was rushed to hospital shortly afterwards. 'I hadn"t been feeling well since the previous night,' Deputy Penrose told the Westmeath Independent this week. 'The record will show that I spoke on the issue and I voted, but I felt unwell. (Fianna Fail TD) Dr Rory O"Hanlon had a word with me and he recommended that I be taken to hospital, so an ambulance came and took me to St James" Hospital.' Deputy Penrose was later discharged after undergoing tests and was told to rest and take it easy over the coming weeks. He stated that he was now 'on the road to recovery' and was 'looking forward to returning to the fray by the weekend or early next week.' He had a minor health scare approximately two weeks ago and felt that last week"s incident occurred as a result of not having taken the first one seriously enough. 'Any time something like this happens it does cause you to re-evaluate things from a different perspective. Since the summer I haven"t been on top form health-wise. This is a bit of a setback but I"ve taken the advice of the doctors this time so hopefully I"m well on the way to recovery,' he said. Deputy Penrose expressed his gratitude to all those who contacted him with expressions of goodwill and support. 'I"ve had a lot of phonecalls and messages from people and I deeply appreciate it. People of all political hues and persuasions have been in touch and I"ve been very gratified and humbled by their response. I want to thank people sincerely for that,' he said.