The chief executive of the National Asset Management Agency has rejected assertions that the agency is contributing to the housing shortage by not releasing sites that have the potential to deliver thousands of homes.
Brendan McDonagh described claims that the agency could help deliver up to 20,000 homes by releasing sites immediately as a "misconception".
"Currently, we have funding approved for 3,000 units. We have 4,000 units which are going up to seek planning permission," he said.
"But the majority of the portfolio - about 12,000 units - is land that will be post-2025, that will be reliant on land zonings from local authorities as they do their development plans over the next 18 months," he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
Mr McDonagh said the NAMA board was working on a plan that would see the portfolio realised by the end of 2025 by which time the agency would be wound down.
"We're doing whatever we can with the existing portfolio to extract the maximum value out of it and get as many sites as shovel ready as possible," he explained.
He was speaking as the agency made a final transfer of surplus cash to the Exchequer for this year, bringing to €3 billion the total NAMA has transferred to the Exchequer since it was established in late 2009.
The agency was set up with a remit to take over €70 billion of bad loans off the banks' balance sheets to allow them to focus on rebuilding after the crash.
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Earlier this year, NAMA revised upwards the amount it expects to deliver in overall surplus to the Exchequer to €4.25 billion - up from €4 billion previously.
It has also made corporation tax payments which should bring the total return closer to €5 billion.
Mr McDonagh said the winding down of NAMA had made it difficult to retain staff in the agency, which has been running a voluntary redundancy programme.
"We'll be down to 130 people by the middle of next year. Each year people are continuing to leave NAMA because there are opportunities in the market for the skill-set that they have, but we're working to use the resources that we have," he said.
"There's a full expectation that by 2025, NAMA will cease operations and people will move elsewhere," he added.
