• WORD COMES to us that Derek Quinlan, who has recently upped sticks to Switzerland for personal and tax reasons, has recruited former Goldman Sachs banker Gerard Lawless to carry out some work for him back in Dublin.

“There are a small number of people that are advising him and I am one of them,” said Lawless when contacted this week.

The one-time banker and current financial consultant has previously worked for Quinlan Private, the wealth management and property investment company from which Quinlan retired in July.

Lawless is based in Ballsbridge, not far from Quinlan Private’s base and Quinlan’s house on Shrewsbury Road.

Quinlan has also in the past turned to Seán Mooney of KPMG, who has helped a number of high-profile business figures restructure their finances.

The Dublin financier certainly needs plenty of advice as Quinlan and the firm where he is still a significant investor has been in negotiations with various banks on refinancing some of their substantial property deals.

• THE DEPARTMENT of Finance has outlined the eight key risks that could cause the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) to fail. Number six is: "Strategic business decisions which would be perceived as involving policy errors or misjudgements on the part of Nama and its board."

Translation: the risk that we’re just going to screw this up.