100 developers represented at Nama meeting Sunday, May 17, 2009 By Nicola Cooke More than 100 of the country’s leading property development companies were represented at a meeting to discuss a combined approach to the National Asset Management Agency (Nama). The meeting was organised by the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), and took place in the organisation’s head office in Dublin last Tuesday.
The federation is considering all the implications, including the legal ones, arising from the establishment of the agency. One delegate who attended the meeting said the CIF would be stressing the importance of a ‘‘functioning property development industry’’ for the Irish economy.
Much concern was voiced at the meeting about the length of time it would take to set up Nama, with many saying that this was prolonging the unstable economic environment.
While refusing to comment on the CIF’s internal discussions on Nama, a spokesman said the recovery of the Irish economy clearly required stability in the residential and commercial property markets ‘‘as a means of supporting jobs, government revenues and increased economic activity’’.
The Sunday Business Post has also learned that developer Sean Dunne called a second meeting of developers in Dublin last Wednesday, in a bid to rally support for a direct challenge to the agency.
However, only a dozen developers turned up, and one of these described the event as a ‘‘damp squib’’.
The CIF is seeking to distance itself from any radical position in relation to Nama, and has instead selected a subcommittee of four of the country’s leading developers to represent it in negotiations with the Department of Finance, the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) and the Attorney General’s office.
The federation has also hired international consultants to prepare a submission to the Department of Finance on behalf of the industry.
According to some of those who attended last Tuesday’s meeting, the federation ‘‘has received a strong mandate from the industry to pursue every avenue required in relation to this matter’’.
‘‘There is a concern that the Nama announcement is creating a limbo situation, which is preventing an upturn in the property markets and depressing the economy further - at a time when the focus should be on kick-starting development,” a source said.
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