He received substantial criticism for his failure to stem the tide of either crisis, ultimately culminating in the Irish Government's formal request for financial aid from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, which was widely regarded in Ireland as a national humiliation.

[18][19] In May 2007, Cowen told Jason O'Toole of Hot Press that, as a student: "I would say there were a couple of occasions when marijuana was passed around – and, unlike President Clinton, I did inhale.

Following the 1989 general election when Fianna Fáil formed a coalition government, with the Progressive Democrats, for the first time, Cowen was one of several TDs who were vehemently opposed to the move.

In front of a crowd of party supporters and the presence of television cameras and radio reporters, Paisley uttered a diatribe about Cowen's appearance and also insulted his mother.

The €3.7 billion package included increases in pension and social welfare allowances, a marked green agenda, as well as a reduction in the top rate of income tax from 42% to 41%.

On 4 April 2008, two days after Ahern announced his intention to resign as Taoiseach and Leader of Fianna Fáil, Cowen was nominated by Brian Lenihan and Mary Coughlan to be his successor.

On 22 January 2011, despite winning a secret confidence motion the week before, Cowen announced he was stepping down as leader, in advance of the 2011 election, to put the party in "the best possible position".

His choices of Mary Coughlan for Tánaiste and Brian Lenihan Jnr as Minister for Finance were criticised as inappropriate by The Irish Times for their "distressing" lack of experience.

Cowen delivered the Irish government budget for 2009 on 14 October 2008, brought forward from its usual December date due to the global financial crisis.

The budget, labelled "the toughest in many years",[43] included several controversial measures, such as a proposed income levy and the withdrawal of previously promised HPV vaccines for schoolgirls.

[44] Changes to education led to a ministerial meeting with three Church of Ireland bishops over what was viewed as a disproportionate level of cuts to be suffered by Protestant Secondary schools.

[49] On 6 December 2008, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland ordered the recall, withdrawal and destruction of all Irish pork products dating back to 1 September, due to the discovery of toxic levels of dioxin in a small percentage of the pig stock.

[55] The budget's initiatives included a doubling of the previous year's income levy to 2%, 4% and 6%; increases on the excise duties on a regular packet of cigarettes (25 cents) and a litre of diesel (5 cents); a new "asset management agency" established to remove bad loans from Irish banks; the gradual elimination of early childcare supplement by 2010, to be replaced by a subsidy towards pre-school for 3- and 4-year-olds; and no further increases in social welfare for at least two years.

Cowen was responding to reports published on 8 February, that the IMF had told Brian Lenihan in April 2009, that the NAMA would not lead to a significant increase in lending by the banks.

[67] The comments, which appear in internal Department of Finance documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, were made by senior IMF official, Steven Seelig, who was to join the board of NAMA in May 2010.

The Government has maintained that NAMA's purchase of bad loans from the banks with State bonds would increase the flow of credit in the economy since the plan was unveiled in April 2009.

Speaking at the publication of the NAMA legislation in September 2009, Mr Lenihan said it would "strengthen and improve" the funding positions of the banks "so that they can lend to viable businesses and households".

Responding to the Taoiseach's defence of his actions as minister for finance, the Leader of the Opposition Enda Kenny accused him of "washing his hands" of his role in Ireland's economic crisis.

Speaking during a front bench meeting in Cork, Kenny also claimed Fianna Fáil was spreading fear by considering cuts to the old age pension.

[68] On 15 June 2010, Cowen faced his second no-confidence motion in just over a year, tabled by Fine Gael after the publication of two reports that criticised government policies in the run-up to Ireland's banking crisis.

[75] In recognition of the political disaster this would inflict on his government, Cowen indicated that the election would take place in early 2011 after the 2011 budgetary process has been completed, though at the time he would not set a specific date.

During a heated Leader's Question session in Dáil Éireann, which ran over the allotted time considerably, Cowen denied that Anglo Irish Bank had been discussed.

[88][89][90] On the evening of 18 January 2011, Government Chief Whip John Curran, announced that Cowen had prevailed in the confidence vote, although the exact counts were to remain secret and the ballots had been shredded.

[97] Faced with a fractured coalition, rebellion within his party, and an acknowledged public relations disaster,[98] Cowen announced his resignation as leader of Fianna Fáil on 22 January 2011.

This left Cowen at the head of a minority government, with seven Ministers (the absolute minimum mandated by the constitution of Ireland), and facing two consecutive no-confidence votes in the Dáil.

As Cowen was no longer a TD when the new Dáil convened, he was unable to preside over the opening, and Fianna Fáil Leader Micheál Martin and outgoing Finance Minister Brian Lenihan appeared on the government front bench in his place.

[122] On 14 September 2010, after an interview on RTÉ's Morning Ireland,[123] Cowen was described by Deputy Simon Coveney of Fine Gael as sounding as if he was intoxicated or hungover.

While The Wall Street Journal stated that "Cowen has presided over the worst economic crisis in modern times",[133] Newsweek ranked him fifth in the world after David Cameron, Mohamed Nasheed, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Wen Jiabao.

Under his stewardship of the country, his party Fianna Fáil, saw its electoral support base diminished by 75% in the general election of February 2011, as a reaction to the intervention, in the running of the Irish economy, of the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank in November 2010.

On 21 March 2012, Cowen delivered a speech at the BMW Center for German and European Studies at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., entitled "The Euro: From Crisis to Resolution?