Cowen’s crash comments under fire from ministers

Coalition ministers rounded on former Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s admission that his government never saw the financial crash coming and that there was no plan in place for a worst case scenario.

Both Fine Gael and Labour ministers questioned Mr Cowen’s comments in his first full interview since leaving office about the economic crash.

Mr Cowen stood over the decision to guarantee all the assets and liabilities of the banks in Sep 2008 saying there was no other way it could have happened. While he did not go as far as to apologise, he said he had to accept responsibility for what had happened.