Constipated property market needs a tonic

DURING the bubble, the Irish economic system came to resemble a snake, swallowing indigestible loan-financed assets.

NAMA was set up to clear the property loans from the Irish banking system.

The originator of the scheme, Peter Bacon, had felt that the best solution to the colossal property and related loans of the banks was to deal with them swiftly and remove over €150 billion of same, cleaning their balance sheets at a stroke.