The Taoiseach was warned at the height of the financial crisis that the army might be needed to protect banks if they ran out of money.
The warning was revealed by Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney, who said the Central Bank briefed Enda Kenny on the need for a "fall-back position" because of the extent of the economic crash.
His comments come after he was asked whether the Taoiseach was still the right man to lead Fine Gael.
Simon Coveney said Enda Kenny brought Ireland back from the brink.
"We were losing about 1,000 jobs a week...The country was bust," he said. "The Taoiseach was getting briefed by the Central Bank that he needed to have a fall-back position whereby the army may have to surround banks to protect them, because we could literally run out of money.
"That is how close we were to the edge as a country because of political mis-management in the past."