The hoped-for Northern agreement was being hyped so much by all sides - bar the actual talks participants - that the possibility of failing to meet the April 9th deadline was barely contemplated. The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, got his backbenchers, if not all FF members, on side for the new arrangements.
He held several briefings for doubters this week, even being whisked by helicopter to the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body in Ballyconnell, Co Cavan on Monday to explain, a couple of miles from the Border, that amending Articles 2 and 3 in exchange for legislative cross-Border bodies would actually weaken partition. He quelled their fears.
Meanwhile, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, continued to put pressure on the unionists and has devoted endless effort to persuading David Trimble to accept the settlement which will then be put to the people, North and South.
But what if all this high-level intense lobbying comes to naught? Until recently the two governments believed that if the talks failed they had to forge ahead and put their own settlement proposals to referendum. Now they feel such a strategy is far too dangerous.
If either the SDLP or Sinn Fein or, more likely now, the unionists, opt out, the governments believe there is no point in seeking endorsement of the plan from the public since so many would follow their leaders and reject it. In that case the inter-party negotiations would be scheduled to recommence in the autumn. And, as well as the awful summer, there would be the fear that should the talks start again, it would be nigh impossible to begin where they left off. It would be back to square one after two years of intense negotiation.
The high-powered hype, which its protagonists hope will carry the participants forward, coupled with the fear of a dangerous vacuum, could force an agreement next week, or indeed very shortly afterwards. But would it hold? There exists a barely expressed feeling that no matter what is signed, the extremists on both sides could still wreck the peace.