NAMA to take over €30bn loans by Christmas

UP to €30 billion in loans of the top 50 property developers in the country will be taken over by the National Assets Management Agency by Christmas, it emerged last night.

Among the loans NAMA will acquire will be €22bn for British properties, mainly around the M25 motorway in London, an area suffering less than others in the recession because of the 2012 Olympics.

Meanwhile jail terms could be handed down to those proven to have been involved in wrong-doing at scandal-hit Anglo Irish Bank, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan indicated yesterday.

Mr Lenihan insisted it would “not be safe to assume” no one would go to prison for irregularities that rocked the bank to such an extent it had to be supported through nationalisation.

Mr Lenihan also dismissed claims the inquiry into events at the bank was moving too slowly and would lead nowhere.

“I don’t have the right to ring up the Office of Corporate Enforcement and ask them how they are getting on,” he said.

Mr Lenihan defended his decision to take the bank into public ownership, claiming that the current economic mess would look like a “tea party” compared to what would have happened if Anglo had gone to the wall.

He also denied there was growing tension between himself and Taoiseach Brian Cowen over economic policy, as he unveiled the National Treasury Management Agency’s (NTMA) annual report, which stated Ireland would have no problem paying its national debt because of a €25bn “cash mountain”.

This despite the cost of repaying interest on the national debt soaring from 3.8% of tax revenues in 2008 to 18.7% in 2013.

Mr Lenihan said draft legislation to create the “bad bank” set to soak up €90bn of toxic property debt would finally appear in August.

The NTMA will oversee the NAMA.