London - Ireland's bailout exit this weekend is not only of huge importance to the country itself, but also to the rest of the eurozone - the Emerald Isle has been held up as the model pupil that proves Europe's austerity formula works.
But economists warn that the road ahead for Dublin is still long, highly dependent on economic conditions in the rest of the world and may be endangered by the government's failure to undertake real reform.
“We are serial economic delinquents,” Brian Lucey, professor of finance at Trinity College Dublin, told dpa.
“And we have not changed the way we do business, so is there any reason to believe we will not continue to be so?” Charles Larkin, an economist at Cardiff Metropolitan University who has advised the Irish government during the financial crisis, agrees.
“Now the Irish can go back to running Ireland the way they want to,” he said, adding that the 2014 budget - which included 2.5 billion euros (3.4 billion dollars) of savings - was “already a return to bad habits.”
“It was full of tax breaks and subsidies for special interests, friends of those in power,” he said.
The European Commission itself has admitted that it would have liked more progress on reforms, for example of sheltered professions such as law and teaching, and of the banks, which have not yet faced up to the country's mortgage crisis.
Around one fifth of Irish mortgage holders are in arrears.
That acts like a dragging anchor on the economy, as those indebted do not go out and spend, one of the reasons why the domestic economy is still “flat on its back and barely twitching,” according to Lucey.
Larkin calculates that the banking sector will likely need another injection of around 10 to 16 billion euros to deal with the mortgage problem, as well as various other liabilities such as those relating to public and private pensions.
“The Irish are trying to make sure the money comes from common (European) sources as opposed to domestic sources,” said Larkin.
“If it comes from domestic sources it could be the sort of pressure that could throw Ireland into a second bailout.”
Many economists also believe that it was a mistake for Dublin not to take a precautionary credit line.
It not only means there are no more constraints on government from the so-called troika - the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank - but also leaves it vulnerable to potential economic shocks from an uncertain international climate.
Anything that causes interest rates to rise, and so increase Dublin's debt refinancing costs - it has an enormous public sector debt of around 125 per cent of gross domestic product - could “send Ireland very quickly into the soup,” said Larkin.
The export-driven economy is also dependent for its own growth on the recovery in its key trade partners, notably Britain and the United States, where the economic pick-up has been uneven and may be affected by things like a tapering in the US quantitative easing programme.
Ireland's growth has already been negatively affected by one key export sector - pharmaceuticals, which has recently seen the expiry of a number of patents for blockbuster drugs made in the country, such as Lipitor and Viagra.
“We're already beginning to see the effects of the patent cliff,” said Larkin.
“There's a lot more volatility in the trade figures.”
A persistently high unemployment rate, 12.9 per cent in September and around 26 per cent among the country's youth, may also hold the country back.
Connected to that is the Irish tradition of emigration in times of unemployment. According to a study by University College Cork, the around 150,000 who left the country between 2008 and 2012 tended to be younger and better educated than the average Irish person, which could have a lasting negative impact on the country's future.
But one thing that few people outside Ireland have considered is the significance of a certain date in 2016: March 27, when Ireland will officially commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, the most significant rebellion against British rule in more than 100 years and which eventually led to Irish independence.
“The key thing for any Irish government will be to stand on the plinth and take the salute on 27th March 2016, and they will do nothing to endanger that,” said Lucey.
Especially not government coalition leaders Fine Gael, he added, who see themselves as the direct political heirs of Ireland's first government.
As a consequence, they are likely to “take their foot off the austerity brake and throw some sweeties around,” said Lucey.
“How would you get elected if you stick to austerity? You can deal with that afterwards.” - Sapa-dpa