Brian Cowen buried by his own hand

THE smoking gun lying next to the corpse of the Irish economy passed through many hands – but the dominant fingerprints on it are those belonging to Mr B Cowen.

Anyone expecting a soft inside whitewash from the Government-appointed investigators was instead presented with a hard-edged backlash against the Taoiseach’s judgement while Finance Minister.

No wonder the Dáil was gagged from discussing it yesterday – no wonder the next stage of the probe has been explicitly banned by the Cabinet from scrutinising Government policy further.