From Garret Kelleher's Spire in Chicago to Bertie Ahern's plan for a bowl-shaped stadium in his own name to U2's plan to have a giant tower in the Docklands, Ireland's grandiose tiger dreams have rapidly turned into implacable financial nightmares.

One of the most grandiose of all plans was that of Irish businessman Domhnall Slattery, who intended to purchase 100 very light jets (effectively small air taxis) and rent them out to top executives all over Europe, starting with a base in Germany, in a venture called JetBird.

Now the staff at the company have been put on protective notice. Executive jets are now seen as being about as appropriate as drinking Cristal champagne in front of the boss.

In 2009 it's all about understatement, austerity and trimming the travel budget, not renting out time on Embraer aircraft that seat only four passengers.

Slattery must now be fretting over the project, but it was always one big gamble, with much of the funding to come from unknown Saudi investors. Private jet travel is dominated by some very big names with very big pockets. Warren Buffett's NetJets lost $500m in the first nine months of this year alone, and Buffett's company has been around for years, with a real foothold in the US market.

JetBird produced much sound and fury, but the funding issue has been dogging it for some time.

It's easy to hire pilots and tell the world how your booking system will operate seamlessly, but funding is where such projects stand or fall.