The Chief Executive of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) says the agency is losing many of its workers to the private sector and will need up to 220 additional staff members to deal with the Anglo Irish Bank loan book.

Brendan McDonagh has been speaking at the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee where he told TDs and Senators that the agency is on course to meet its targets on repaying senior debt this year.

NAMA will pay off another €750 million euro of its senior debt next week and is on target to have 25% of the total paid off by the end of the year and the full amount by 2020.

Mr. McDonagh also denied any conflict of interest when it comes to former NAMA workers crossing over to the private sector.

NAMA is set to take over a large amount of the Anglo loan book and Mr. McDonagh says they will need the new workers to deal with the increase in workload.

The agency lost 10% of its workforce this year alone to the private sector and he says the reality is there are lots of jobs in asset recovery with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) even poaching some NAMA staff.

But Mr. McDonagh denied any conflict of interest for staff who leave. He says they are bound by the Official Secrets Act.