FORMER TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen is making progress with his health after being hospitalised earlier this month, his brother Barry Cowen TD has said. 

It is understood that the former Fianna Fáil leader was admitted to intensive care in a private hospital after taking ill on 4 July. 

Cowen had been experiencing some ill health in the weeks prior to him being hospitalised, it is understood. 

Speaking on RTÉ Radio One’s Liveline earlier today, Barry Cowen said that his brother’s progress is slow “but it’s progress nonetheless”. 

“There might be a long road ahead but there’s a road ahead and we’re delighted that’s the case,” he said. 

We’re greatly encouraged and most thankful for all the messages of goodwill that are flooding in from, obviously from our hometown and country, but throughout the country. 

Barry Cowen was speaking after golfer Shane Lowry, a fellow Co Offaly native, yesterday won The Open at Royal Portrush.

“Yesterday and the weekend has given us all a great lift because it was a fantastic achievement and we share in that the same as any other member of the community or the town does,” he said.

Speaking to reporters earlier this month, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he hopes Cowen makes a speedy recovery. 

“I served in the Dáil with Brian Cowen for a number of years and I really hope if he is unwell, as I hear he is, that he makes a speedy recovery,” said Varadkar. 

Brian Cowen was first elected as a TD for Laois/Offaly in 1984 on the death of his father, and served as a TD until his retirement in 2011.

He was Taoiseach from May 2008 to March 2011, during the period when the Irish economy began to collapse and austerity policies were implemented as part of the bailout programme.

With reporting by Stephen McDermott