It's just a bit smaller, and a lot sunnier, than you might expect. It's also one of 300 islands that together make up a jigsaw puzzle version of the map of the earth, the utterly audacious The World, which is just a few hundred metres from the shoreline of Dubai.

Norton will be looking to sell a bit of it, maybe as soon as this autumn. And the 'island' of Thailand as well.

Each of the 130 units, ranging from studios at 400,000 each to fourbedroom properties costing up to 1.9m, will have its own private beach.

You can leave the kids in a creche, get in a water taxi, have breakfast in New York, lunch in Thailand, dinner in Paris and be back in Ireland before last orders.

Norton, 34, is managing director of Larionovo, which has been matching up Irish buyers with overseas property since he and partner Andrew Brett formed the company in 2002.

"I started out buying properties for friends, and it grew into this fantastic opportunity. The timing was great, " says Norton.

Timing has indeed been good to the Co Clare man, who at 22 started a tech firm which he sold in 2000 before the crash. He then got into property. And yes, you are allowed to hate him.

Larionovo also is the exclusive Irish agent for Dubai Sports City, a $2bn a development that will include four sports stadia, a golf course, commercial district and office blocks.

Interest in Dubai has exploded in recent years, since the ruling family realised that the country's tiny oil reserves had only a few years left. Sheik Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum reckoned that setting itself up as a Middle East hub friendly to western business would be the way forward, attracting multinational firms with tax rates that would make even IDA executives blanche.

Microsoft reportedly has a 75-year tax exemption.

Tourism was something of an afterthought, but the sort of geopolitical risk in the region that has put traders off has done little to damp enthusiasm for Dubai's extraordinary projects.

The World project is expected to be completed in 2008. But in the meantime Norton has a dilemma . . . how to represent 'Ireland' on the clean slate of island he is now developing.

He has at least one less worry than he would have at home. There's little risk of An Taisce getting involved.