FANCY owning an apartment, a shop or a pub? Then NAMA is your only man. As Ireland's largest property company struggles to offload its €30bn-plus portfolio, it has taken the drastic step of listing those properties to which it has appointed receivers on its website.

The list, almost 1,000 properties, and the range, it includes properties in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain, is enormous.

All of human life -- well the complete range of Ireland's property mania, at least -- is on the list. From hotels in Carlow to apartments in Clare to offices in Dublin to shops on London's ultra-exclusive Bond Street.

Doesn't it just make you proud to be Irish?

Unfortunately, the latest NAMA list represents only a portion of the huge amount of properties on its books.

The list published this week consists solely of properties previously owned by developers to whom it has appointed receivers, ie developers whose properties have been seized by NAMA after it failed to agree a business plan with the developer concerned.

This represents a fraction of the NAMA portfolio. In its 2010 annual report, which was published this week, the State 'bad bank' revealed that it had agreed business plans with 36 developers and was in negotiations with a further 27 developers who had submitted business plans. It has also appointed receivers to a further 27 developers.

And there will be more receivers appointed to developers in the coming weeks and months. The NAMA annual report revealed that it was "reviewing" the business plans submitted by a further 61 developers, while another 26 developers hadn't bothered to submit a business plan by the end of 2010.

And there's more. In order that it isn't deluged by the tidal wave of insolvent property developers, NAMA is only directly handling the affairs of the 177 biggest developers.

A further 670 smaller developers are being handled by the banks on behalf of NAMA. Already receivers have been appointed to 46 of these smaller developers on behalf of NAMA, with many more likely to be appointed in the near future.

So is the publication by NAMA of a partial list of the properties which it now owns on behalf of you and me, the taxpayers of Ireland, a good or a bad thing? On balance, it must be considered a good thing.

Ever since it was first established in December 2009, NAMA has been dogged by accusations that it was excessively secretive and that it lacked the necessary transparency for such a huge public body.

By publishing a list of seized properties, even if the information supplied is often incomplete, NAMA is at least acknowledging these concerns. However, more, much more, needs to be done. There is still much about NAMA that is secretive and opaque.

obscure

For a State-owned body that is now by far the largest landowner in Ireland and whose success or failure will largely determine when or if Ireland can pull itself out of its current economic mess, that's not good enough.

NAMA isn't some obscure bureaucratic quango whose original function has long since been forgotten by everybody but a central, arguably the central player, in the Irish economy. We all have an enormous stake in its future success or failure.

While the publication of a partial list represents a not insignificant first step, NAMA boss Brendan McDonagh urgently needs to introduce a regime of complete openness if it is to retain public trust and confidence.

- Dan White