NEWS FOCUS: Deal or no deal?

The deal reached on scrapping the reviled promissory notes received a muted welcome last night with questions raised over how effective it would be in ridding the country of Anglo Irish Bank’s poisonous legacy.

Enda Kenny described it as a “historic step on the road to economic recovery” but concerns were raised that it may also have lengthened the road the country must travel to put the Anglo disaster behind it.

And while Finance Minister Michael Noonan indicated it would provide breathing space for the exchequer and growing room for the economy, opponents argued that given the scale of the overall national economic woes, it amounted simply to making us all live within only a slightly bigger cage...