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Last week, TDs were twice summoned into the Dail chamber for separate unscheduled announcements within 48 hours. The first summons was for the date of the referendum on the Fiscal Treaty. The second, for the details of the Anglo Irish promissory notes deal.
The official government line is that there is no connection between the referendum on Europe's Fiscal Treaty and Europe's green light for a delay on repaying the Anglo debt. The Government is scared stiff of getting up the nose of the European Central Bank, so the pretence has to persist that the twin stories -- running in tandem to the hour -- are just a coincidence.
In the world of realpolitik, there is now a better chance of the treaty being passed if Enda Kenny and Michael Noonan can convince us that the Anglo notes breakthrough is the first of a series of concessions from Europe.
The subliminal message is that the European leaders are far from austerity freaks, but, instead, our lifeline to recovery. The concession on Anglo is their evidence.
Their challenge now is to exploit the debt deferment message at home, while at the same time reassuring Europe that they will not paint it as a victory.
Noonan squared the two constituencies in his speech, simultaneously doffing the cap to Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy while suggesting to the home audience that the duo were really sugar daddies: "This approach reinforces the commitment of our European partners in assisting the State in its path to recovery."
Kenny and Noonan played the referendum card almost silently during their Anglo negotiations. They would never have been given a day's breathing space if they had not strode into the promissory note talks, armed with the referendum grenade smouldering quietly in their pockets.
The timing of the deal suits Kenny and Noonan perfectly. This weekend they will enjoy a spell in the sun, basking in the Anglo deal achieved just a day before their Ard Fheis. They will plead -- with a straight face -- that the timing is just another coincidence.
You can normally tell that the news is good when Enda shows up at the photocall. Not always, mind you. He hit a haymaker on his US travels at a supposedly good news event when Denis O'Brien wrecked his moment of glory by joining him on the balcony in Wall Street.
All the pictures in China last week failed to redress the balance.
On Thursday, he must have told the pilot on the jet from Shanghai to put his foot on the pedal. His globe-trotting had kept him away from the Dail for two weeks. He had deftly missed the entire "bad news" debate on the Mahon tribunal. He had been absent for the household charges debacle, but by four o'clock on Thursday there he was -- panting a bit perhaps, but just in time as he tottered down the stairs, jet lagged, to sit beside Michael for the television cameras.
It was 4.15pm in Dublin -- but way past Enda's bedtime in Shanghai. Still, the Taoiseach would not have missed Michael's good news gig for all the tea in China.
Just another coincidence. No doubt he just happened to be hanging around Ireland and the Dail for the first time in two weeks.
The Taoiseach's return to Dublin and the sudden Anglo news release were timed to the minute.
Enda's frantic dash across the globe was not in vain. There he was, top item on the RTE Nine O'Clock News, sitting beside his Finance Minister and basking in the Anglo notes triumph.
RTE's Eileen Dunne obligingly announced the good news story: "A deal is struck on Anglo . . ."
The job was done. Enda said nothing. After Noonan's announcement, the Government refused point blank to allow any Opposition TDs to speak on the deal.
They were wrong. Although the deal is weaker than anticipated, although there was nothing in it for the ordinary people, it was a start. Enda and Michael -- so keen on their association with the "success" of the promissory note deal -- should have allowed a debate. Certainly they could have expected the usual opposition from the far left -- but there is a willingness from many opposition voices to consider the merits of the deal.
If the Government is telling the truth -- that the agreement to defer payment by converting the cash owed into a distant-dated bond is the road to further reductions in the bank debt -- they could have spelled it out and answered questions.
They preferred the route of news management. A sudden piece of good news was being hyped up to blot out the memory of Mahon and Moriarty.
At the same time, Anglo's embarrassing 2011 results, announced on Thursday, were wiped off the front pages.
Mahon has done both the main political parties damage. Moriarty still has the potential to torpedo Fine Gael. The Anglo Irish annual results were a reminder that a toxic corpse in the banking cemetery is still being indulged by Enda and Michael.
Miraculously, they contrived to turn Anglo into a good news story on a bad day for the bank.
Top people in a bankrupt bank are still being rewarded as though it is a healthy outfit operating with big profits, -- when in fact it remains the heaviest albatross around the necks of Irish people.
The big figures from Anglo were awful as ever -- but the small print was even more horrifying. To most of us, it is now meaningless that the bank lost €873m instead of €18bn. We do not give a hoot -- because the figures are floating in a meaningless orbit.
Far more worrying is the existence of the bank at all and the spendthrift culture that survives.
The results announcement was full of self-congratulation.
"A number of major initiatives were successfully concluded throughout 2011," according to Anglo boss Mike Aynsley.
He even insisted that there had been "welcome progress". Anglo had reduced staff costs by eight per cent during 2011. No one asked what on earth the 1,219 staff remaining at Anglo were doing when the bank is a zombie.
Aynsley is simply trying to justify his outrageous salary. He takes home a package of €866,000 a year -- an obscene amount for a man directing the misfortunes of a bank that is still costing Irish taxpayers billions.
Part of his package was a comical payment of €203,000 for "relocation expenses". His fellow nonentities on the board are all pocketing around €100,000 a year as part-timers. These top guys in today's banks, courtesy of the Government, are still living the high life of the boom days for no visible return to the Irish people.
And they are continuing to line consultants' pockets as though the boom years never ended. Their pursuit of Sean Quinn, while a worthy objective, may prove fruitless. They are spending €2m a week on professional fees, enriching the usual suspects.
Enda and Michael are masters of the media game. When they have stopped spinning their success story at tackling the past sins of "old" Anglo, they might turn their attentions to the continuing excesses of "new" Anglo.
