THE TROIKA will give its verdict this week on whether or not Ireland is still top of the bailout class, and Government officials are hopeful for another gold star.

Data released last week showed the economy is on track to meet its 8.6 per cent gross domestic product deficit target for 2012. The crucial half-yearly exchequer returns showed the gap between public spending and revenues narrowed in the first six months of the year.

As this key economic indicator came in on target, our guests are likely to have concentrated their energies elsewhere, namely on checking whether we ticked all the boxes on factors such as reform, the introduction of new legislation and so on.

“I’d say it will be another positive review,” a Department of Finance spokesman told us. The current visit represents the seventh review in our bailout programme, and the department official conceded that satisfying our paymasters gets harder as we move further through the process. This is because we are relying on growth returning to the economy, which – unlike the box-ticking exercise – cannot be engineered through sheer political will.

“The euro crisis has stalled everything,” the spokesman said. All Ireland can do is put everything in place so it is ready to benefit from growth in the wider European economy. “The economy is going to determine how we perform.”