Nama Gamble

IRELAND’S economic recovery has been gambled on a €54bn taxpayer buy-out of bad property debts.

Finally revealing the massive cost of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), Brian Lenihan drew sharp opposition fire by valuing the “toxic” land deals taken on at €7bn more than they are worth.

The Finance Minister insisted that although the value of the property being cleared out of banks had slumped from €77bn to €47bn, he would still hand €54bn to the institutions in the hope land will gain 10% in price over the next decade.