Ministers knew of bailout: Cowen

MINISTERS were fully informed about developments in the run-up to the IMF bailout last November the Taoiseach has insisted.

He was responding to claims by Micheál Martin who said the way the issue was managed and communicated was a “watershed moment” in the Taoiseach’s leadership.

Senior ministers Noel Dempsey and Dermot Ahern — who are both stepping down at the next election — were understood to be unhappy with how they were briefed about the bailout. Mr Ahern was left humiliated after publicly denying the bailout as “fiction” just days before the EU-IMF team arrived in Dublin for talks.