Reading the coverage in the dailies and the fawning reports of some analysts would lead you to believe the auction of bonds last week was an occasion to crack open the champagne.

The cause for a national celebration? The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) borrowed another €1bn by selling government IOUs at annual interest payments that were a lot lower than we had to pay out during the crisis months this year.

The NTMA raised €400m of five-year money and €600m of nine-year money at rates of about 3.40% and 4.55% respectively, still depressingly higher than Ireland's international peer group.

Irish sovereign interest rates have indeed narrowed significantly in recent weeks but it remains a bit of a mystery why they are not falling more sharply.

Raising €600m in the benchmark 2018 bond may also signal that the NTMA has little confidence that Irish interest rates will continue to narrow toward the lower rates that Greece, Portugal and the Czech Republic pay.

Could it be that uncertainty about the bad bank, the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), is keeping sovereign interest rates high?

International sovereign debt experts say the debate here about Nama is somewhat skewed: the government's gross debt is soaring because its revenues are slumping while demands on spending are rising. They say gross debt here will peak at about 115% of GDP, or €190bn, by 2012, and only €30bn of the debt is likely to be related to the costs of the Nama discount.