Phew! Have we got away with it? They were dancing on the streets of Beijing last week, said the Financial Times, after the US treasury unveiled its startling plan to bolster the US economy by buying up $300bn of its own debt, supporting the value of US debt paper the Chinese already hold.

The joy was most likely shared down near the canal at the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA). Why? Because the creditworthiness of Ireland, questioned by the markets for the past six months, took a turn suddenly for the better.

So it's probably no coincidence that the NTMA said it would attempt to raise up to €1bn in an auction of Irish debt paper this Tuesday, the first major auction of Irish debt paper for some time. It appears the government plans to tap the new confidence that the country is not going bust. It may also be hoping that China will subscribe to the Irish auction, as it did last year before the debt crisis.

Helping sentiment too was the EU agreement on Friday to bail out eastern European states and a general acceptance there is a "secret" ECB fund to help out eurozone countries. On the credit default swap markets, the cost that foreigners must pay to insure their Irish debt fell sharply to 253 basis points (2.53%), the lowest since early last month, and down sharply from the record 379 on 17 February. Lower insurance costs may help encourage more bids at Tuesday's auction.

But before we get carried away, it is worth noting that the cost of insuring debt was as low as 26 basis points in late September.

All eyes are fixed on Tuesday. The country's future may depend on it!