Very sad, but I can't see the Irish government having the will or the resources to keep the carrier going for ever.
But the airline is doing a fine job of keeping itself going, three years now it's declared a profit and passenger numbers are at an all time high. I don't think the government need to do anything to keep EI going for a long time more. The only protection the government was providing here was for the consumer, not the company. The case may have been different if EI was failing, but at the moment it has the 3rd highest profit margin of an airline in Europe, so the only interests the government has protected are those of the people who elected them.