The State debt agency National Asset Management Agency (NTMA) will have responsibility for the planned toxic property debt agency or "bad bank" to be known as the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) and last week, Dr Michael Somers chief executive of the NTMA said he did not know how NAMA would be set up or operated, six weeks after Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan had made an announcement on NAMA, during the presentation of the April Emergency Budget. Lenihan today tried to dampen fears, that the NAMA plan is little more than rough outline.

“I am still not sure how NAMA will interact with the NTMA,” Somers told the Dáil Public Accounts Committee last week, adding that his agency had not been adequately staffed to operate the new body.

The establishment of the National Asset Management Agency is “not something to be rushed into,” Lenihan said this morning.

The reason the Government was taking its time was to ensure legislation underpinning NAMA was “robust” and able to “resist legal challenge”, he said on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland .

“We can’t have a lawyers’ bonanza and that is another good reason why we have to get this right. [We] need to ensure that whatever legal arrangements are put in place here are robust and sturdy and will resist legal challenge.”

Lenihan claimed he had received a warm reception from investors during recent trips to Paris and London to try and counter the impact of negative news about the Irish economy and its banks.

Those investors had been “very impressed” by the action taken by the Governments action, including the removal of 5% of GDP, he said.

Lenihan said that “the precise corporate structure of NAMA” had yet to be decided;“something I have discussed directly with Dr Somers myself since the Government decision and another point he acknowledged at the Committee very freely”.

“There is absolutely no disagreement between Dr Somers and myself about the need to establish NAMA, but what Dr Somers was pointing to was that despite the enormous media speculation there is an awful lot of practical work to be done here.”

Lenihan also said Somers had been “very closely involved in the decision” to set up the NAMA and had also contacted the European Central Bank to ensure the funding base for such a plan was available.

“Dr Somers of course appeared on the platform of the presentation of the decision and has made it very clear to me and indeed on many other occasions that in principle he believes this is the only way to go."

“What we are doing is putting together a high-level technical group to work out the final details of this proposal arrived at in principle by the Government, put those details together and transmute it into legislation.”

The Minister said the new agency was likely to have a small staff and outsource much of its work. Proposals for tenders for legal advice, valuations and property management expertise will be received next week, he said.

One option for NAMA is to directly manage the loans of a small group of the largest developers, although Lenihan refused to comment on the size of this group:“I am not saying 20, it could be 30, 40, 50."

“Clearly the high exposures will have to be managed on a centralised basis because many of their exposures . . . go right across the banking sector and are not restricted to one particular bank.”

On bank nationalisation, Lenihan said he is not opposed to it.

“What I have said is that I am opposed to wholesale nationalisation, that means you nationalise 100% of your banking sector.”He said he was against this because“your capacity to attract funds from other countries is diminished and that will not be good for Ireland”.

The State has already owns Anglo Irish Bank and taken a 25 per cent stake in Bank of Ireland and AIB as part of a €7 billion recapitalisation.

Mr Lenihan said if “if there are further losses the State may have to take additional stakes in these banks . . .”

“I do really want to scotch the idea that there are huge risks to the taxpayer in the valuation process because we are not nationalising these institutions."

"If as a consequence of implementing NAMA, there are substantial losses in the banks and additional capital is required then the State will clearly have to socialise potential gains as well as the loses . . .”he said.

On Sunday, on the basis of a briefing by Department of Finance officials, the Sunday Business Post reported that the country’s largest property developers will be protected from collapse by NAMA.

The newspaper said under advanced plans being drawn up in conjunction with the Department of Finance, NAMA will agree not to force up to 20 of the country’s top developers into receivership or liquidation.

This comes amid concerns over the likely impact of a large-scale developer falling into bankruptcy.

The Post said officials have warned that the knock-on effects of a single developer collapsing are likely to be significant. The number of projects in which more than one developer has an interest means that forcing a single borrower into receivership could also cause others to go under.

The close links between the biggest developers and the governing Fianna FáilParty will renew fears of cronyism, which has been rampant in the Irish governance system.