[needs update] Despite this early criticism, as of year end 2018, NAMA had recovered €37.4bn from its owned assets and projected that it would eventually generate a net surplus of €4bn.

Along with their capital requirement problems, this is limiting the banks' ability to offer credit to their customers and, in turn, contributing to the lack of growth in the Irish economy.

[10] The National Asset Management Agency Bill, in its current format, applies to the six financial institutions which were covered by the Irish government's deposit guarantee scheme.

[22] The letter stated that NAMA is to be treated as part of the government sector, the type of assets to be purchased cannot be expanded without the approval of the European Commission, that it be a temporary scheme and that the size of potential losses be small relative to the total liabilities.

But, as the three private investors are bank-run pension fund managers, whose parent or major-shareholder companies had been all but nationalised by 2011, and as the 2010 Credit Institutions (Stabilisation) Act allows the government powers to apply to the courts to restructure any financial body in any way in secret at any time, and as a general guarantee to protect the parent banks remains in place (see the covered institutions below), the international rating agencies consider NAMA's debts to be a part of Irish government debt.

In April 2012, the stakeholding in the SPV belonging to Irish Life Investment Managers was sold on the order of the minister for finance, Michael Noonan, to an undisclosed investor.

In particular, given the debate on domestic competitiveness versus other countries, Ireland may experience real-exchange rate depreciation, which could have a drag effect of nominal property value.

In his speech to the Dáil on 16 September 2009, the Minister of Finance Brian Lenihan indicated that alternatives to NAMA that did not use long-term economic value would lead to the need for fresh equity to be injected by the government into the financial sector of between €4 and 7 billion.

[43] Then-Labour Party Enterprise spokesperson and former Finance Minister Ruairi Quinn accused the Government of "proposing to establish the biggest property company in the world and asking taxpayers to foot the bill and bear all the risk."

We can summarise our arguments in favour of nationalisation, and against the Government's current approach of limited recapitalisation and the introduction of an asset management agency, under four headings.

[15] On 7 October 2009, Professor Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics and former chief economist of the World Bank, speaking at Trinity College Dublin criticised NAMA.

But if it does it in such a way that implies it is buying these assets at overpriced prices that does not reflect the underlying value, then it is giving a big subsidy to the bank shareholders and the unsecured creditors."

Other participants at the IFSS include Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times and Philip Lane, Professor of International Macroeconomics at Trinity College Dublin.

Cowen was responding to reports published on 8 February that the IMF had told Lenihan in April 2009 that the NAMA would not lead to a significant increase in lending by the banks.

[48] The comments, which appear in internal Department of Finance documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, were made by senior IMF official Steven Seelig who joined the board of NAMA in May 2010.

The Government has maintained that NAMA's purchase of bad loans from the banks with State bonds would increase the flow of credit in the economy since the plan was unveiled April 2009.

Speaking at the publication of the NAMA legislation in September 2009, Mr Lenihan said it would "strengthen and improve" the funding positions of the banks "so that they can lend to viable businesses and households".

The document also noted that asset prices would need to increase from current market values by 10%, for the government and taxpayers to avoid any loss, taking into account subordinated debt.

Based on the information presented in the Supplementary Data Document, if the €68bn book value was transferred at €54bn to NAMA, the covered institutions could be a write-down of both their Tier 1 capital and Risk-weighted assets of €14bn in aggregate.

On 8 October 2009, Brian Lenihan, then-Minister of Finance, said that even after selling real-estate loans to the government's NAMA, that the country's biggest banks may need further money.

[54] On 10 October 2009, the Irish Times reported that Bank of Ireland and AIB could need to raise a combined €9bn as a result of write-downs associated with the transfer of assets to NAMA.

The August 2009 open letter by 46 academics[56] reported in the Irish Times, suggests that the Government is in a strong position, if it chooses, to negotiate with bondholders to engage in some debt for equity swaps.

The Draft Business Plan looks at sensitivity analysis, indicating that if short and/or long-term interest rates rise, there would be an erosion of the €5 billion positive cash flow to NAMA.

A part of the Draft Business Plan that is mentioned but not modeled in the document, is the ability of the NAMA to borrow an incremental €5 billion to pursue its "asset development/enhancement objectives".

An additional advantage of paying part-equity for the loans, that Professor Honohan mentions in his paper, is the benefit of having some private shareholders within NAMA, given "the extensive international evidence showing that Government-owned banking systems serve their economies poorly."

[71] In February 2012, Paddy McKillen won the latest hearing on a preliminary issue in his UK legal battle with the Barclay brothers for control of the five-star Maybourne Hotel Group in London.

The latest ruling strengthens his case against the Barclays to argue that Ireland's National Asset Management Agency unlawfully transferred €800 million of debt on the hotels to the brothers last September.

[76] The Northern Ireland Assembly's Committee for Finance and Personnel launched an inquiry into the sale[77] after concerns were raised by Mick Wallace TD in the Dáil.

[78] In 2015, under "Project Albion", NAMA sold a portfolio of United Kingdom commercial assets to Oaktree Capital Management for £115m that had had a book value of £226m.

[88][89] Stephen Donnelly TD called for a Dáil investigation and produced detailed calculations[90] based on the scale of asset disposals by NAMA to US funds showing that the loss of Irish taxes could reach €20bn.