Nama to outsource rather than recruit

Considering the fact that the government is planning to channel the bad debt of Ireland's top 20 property developers through the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), you might have thought a large number of jobs would be created to administer them. Sadly, it seems the plan is to outsource the work to third-parties.

The top 20 construction firms in Ireland account for the vast majority of the some €90bn of loans in the Irish banking system.

This led Michael Somers, chief executive of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA, which oversees Nama), to say last week that his agency didn't have the manpower or expertise for this complex task.

Somers said there were thousands of people looking after bad loans within Irish banks.

However, rather than embark on a massive recruitment drive, finance minister Brian Lenihan says the work will be undertaken by a third-party.

"Everyone is of the view that you need a small, tight group in Nama," he told RTE Radio. "A lot of the work will have to be outsourced."