A HIGH profile property developer has described the Government's projections for Nama as "off the wall" and said the prospect of the bad bank is "pretty frightening".
Mick Wallace, managing director of Wallace Construction was speaking at the launch of Irish Timesjournalist Fintan O'Toole's new book Ship of Fools.
Mr Wallace said that while property developers and bankers did not come out of the book very well the Government did not either in what was "a very honest assessment", adding that he could not see things getting better in the near future.
The developer said that the Government's projections for Nama were misguided.
"If you worked in the business you'd know they were completely off the wall," he said.
He said that that those in power no longer seemed to care and that the people who do care were not getting involved in politics. He added that the glorification of power and success by so many people with power and influence in the country had to be addressed.
"The politicians seem to be dependent on big business for political backing," he said.
Speaking at the launch, O'Toole said that he had tried to bring together the different aspects of Ireland's recent bust in his book, including the political, economic, social and cultural aspects which pre-empted it, adding that there had to be political responsibility for what has happened.
"We can't get out of the hole we're in in a narrow economic sense . . . This was about a much larger failure of the political system and of public values," he said.