Government spinning out of control with macho promissory note bluff

HAS the Government been playing a desperate game of ‘call my bluff’ with the European Central Bank? What are the stakes? Us or them?

By the end of last year, the reassurances that we would have a deal on the promissory notes before the Mar 31 payment date were becoming shriller and shriller. Even cautious Finance Minister Michael Noonan described a deal before March as “likely.”

Then I met an insider who said there was no deal. He said the Government’s only hope was to ‘take’ a deal.