DUBLIN-As concerns about Greece continue, Irish woes appear tobe looking up. Frank Daly, chairman of theNational Asset Management Agency, said at an eventthis morning that the agency plans to invest $2.5 billion through2016 to complete construction work of distressed commercial andresidential properties and to develop greenfield sites in thecountry.

The agency was formed by the Irish government in 2009 toshepherd the country’s banks through the debt crisis. Daly saidthat there are more and more indications that the country, and withit some important segments of the property market, have turned thecorner.

The agency, tasked with sorting through about $90 billion inloan assets, has already committed more than $632 million in newworking capital and development capital advances for projectslocated in Ireland. Daly said the agency recently affirmed itsexpectation that it will meet its core commercial objective ofrepaying its debts in full by 2020.