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CAN the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) really do it all?
The word is that the body that sells government bonds to billionaire investors on Wall Street is going into business on Main Street.
That's the upshot of news that its National Pension Reserve Fund unit is to start buying up troubled small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in joint venture deals with international "vulture" funds.
The SME sector is in crisis, and the Pension Reserve has cash, but is the state agency really a sensible choice to become a mass owner of small businesses?
The Punt supposes that if anyone can do it, the NTMA can. After all, it does everything else.
News that one arm of the agency is to buy up private companies for the State comes as another – New Era – steps up its efforts to sell off state enterprises, starting with Bord Gais Energy.
No wonder John Corrigan, left, is the State's best-paid official.
