CIF: NAMA must provide finance

THE National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) should be used to re-energise the country’s property market by providing “adequate working capital and finance” given the continuing absence of bank lending, according to the Construction Industry Federation (CIF).

Addressing the first meeting in the CIF’s four-part seminar series, in Dublin’s Conrad Hotel yesterday, the federation’s president, Matt Gallagher, said that NAMA’s involvement “can support the restoration of a properly functioning property market by providing adequate working capital and finance into the sector.”

Mr Gallagher called on Government to “get to grips with Ireland’s unsustainable current spending levels” and to prioritise what he called “productive investments” in the economy “that will provide employment in the short-term and pave the way for future growth.”