It is unusual for business and personal interests to coincide as has happened in recent weeks as a result of the publication by the Irish Government of a business plan for the National Asset Management Agency (Nama).

Nama is being set up to effectively manage the world's largest property portfolio valued at about €77 billion (US$ 115 billion). Its purpose is to rescue the Irish banking sector from insolvency and to restart normal lending in the Irish economy.

The need for Nama has arisen from an unrestrained property binge over the past decade led by ineffectual financial regulation, foolish bankers, greedy developers and an incompetent government. Excuse the intemperate language but there is no other way to describe their roles in pushing Ireland into the worst recession experienced by any developed nation since the Great Depression. This resulted in a huge oversupply of over-priced commercial property and hundreds of thousands of house owners facing into negative equity. More on the Irish property boom. Several books have been published recently about the role of politicans, bankers, regulators and developers in stoking the boom - see our bookshelf to browse or buy the best sellers.

Nama aims to address the bubble in commercial property by purchasing all the property-related loans of five Irish-owned banks for €54 billion with a view to securing capital and interest payments of these loans from developers over the next decade. While the Government accepts that it is overpaying for these loans, it expects (hopes?) to make a profit of over €5 billion overall based on its business plan.

Critics of Nama argue that Irish taxpayers could lose up to €10-15 billion according as many developers default on their loans. Brian Flanagan, founder of the PlanWare site has been deeply critical of Nama. Read his assessment of Nama's business plan here.