Extreme governmental outsider promises to repay debt - Splendid! (8)

I believe the answer is:

glorious

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'splendid' is the definition.
(I know that splendid can be written as glorious)

'extreme governmental outsider promises' is the wordplay.
'extreme' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'outsider' becomes 'or' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'promises' becomes 'IOUs' (promises to pay a debt).
'governmental' with its middle taken out is 'gl'.
'gl'+'or'+'ious'='GLORIOUS'

'to repay debt' is the link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for glorious that I've seen before include "Strikingly beautiful or impressive" , "Wonderful" , "Splendid - delightful - eminent" , "Illustrious" , "Strange" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.

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