The leader of the Green Party has admitted the government he was part of almost ran out of money twice at the height of the economic collapse.
He has accused Enda Kenny of wrongly “conflating” the Eurozone crisis with the Irish crisis.
Eamon Ryan says there were not enough funds to pay public wages in September 2008 and again in Autumn 2010.
His comments follow a report in today's Sunday Times which claims the Irish army was on standby to stamp Euro notes as punts in 2012 when there was a risk of a Euro collapse.
Speaking on the Sunday Show this morning, Eamon Ryan, who was part of the rainbow coalition government in 2008, suggested they were almost unable to pay many professionals including doctors and teachers.
Mr Ryan also argued that "Enda Kenny is conflating two different crises. The crisis they were involved in was a wider Euro crisis - and yes there was a real risk at that time.
"I'm sure [Governor of the Central Bank] Patrick Honohan did say to him 'listen, we've got to have plans because the Euro could fold here'. It was very close in 2011, 2012 to wider systemic crisis in the Euro," he added.
