Conor Murphy reveals he had mini-stroke

Mr Murphy returned to work on Tuesday following a two-week period of absence from the role. His Sinn Féin colleague, Deirdre Hargey, filled in during his absence.

Speaking to UTV, Mr Murphy said that he had suffered an incident while travelling, which caused a temporary interruption of loss of blood supply to the brain.

"That caused a loss of power on one side of the body,” he said.

"So I went, not the next day, I went the day after, to get it checked out. It only lasted for a period and then I was fine.

“When I went to the GP, he recommended urgent scans and so, I spent most the next week in and out of both Craigavon and Daisy Hill Hospital getting various scans, tests, recommendations for treatment and a very clear recommendation of taking time off work.”

Mr Murphy said that a mini-stroke can be treated but “you obviously need to heed the warning you get”.

"You need to go and get advice and assistance, you need a lot of tests to make sure exactly what the nature of it is. But I'm fortunate in a way that it hasn't had any lasting effect. I have been able to come back to work.

“I will, of course, heed the warning that I've got. I've changed medication and I'm obviously looking at lifestyle alterations as well.”

The Economy Minister had been due to appear before the COVID enquiry and shrugged off suggestions that he was “dodging” the enquiry.

“I can think of better way is to dodge an enquiry than the episode that I went through,” he quipped.

"People are cynical and that's that's just the nature of politics here. The enquiry have my statement, they have the supporting evidence that I sent in, they have reserved the right to call me again and I’m very content to go if required.”