The board of NAMA said it was “disappointing” they wouldn’t be allowed to pay staff bonuses after the Finance Minister warned against it.
It halted performance-related pay for last year after being told by Paschal Donohoe that running a compulsory redundancy programme when paying bonuses would not be a “good mix”.
Board minutes released under FOI revealed the block on payments was “disappointing particularly” when they were struggling to keep key staff but they could not afford to lose Government support.
NAMA’s bonuses ended for 2020, after totalling €1.5 million in the previous two years. An extract from minutes of their remuneration committee meeting in March explained how Mr Donohoe had met NAMA chairman Aidan Williams.
It added: “The minister strongly indicated that potentially running a compulsory redundancy programme with performance related pay was not a good mix in this current economic environment.”
The committee were told it should be noted that all NAMA’s objectives for 2020 had either been met or exceeded.
The minutes also detailed how NAMA chief executive Brendan McDonagh was eligible for performance-related pay but had “declined the opportunity” to be considered for the scheme last year.
“The Committee however noted that the performance of the CEO was such that a PRP [performance related] payment would have been warranted based on his own and Nama’s 2020 performance,” said the minutes.
Extracts from the minutes of a private session of the NAMA board three days later said the decision was “disappointing particularly” considering the agency faced challenges in retaining key staff and after a year in which they paid €2 billion to the Exchequer.
The minutes said: “The Board noted that although it is important to not lose the support of the Minister … losing key resources is a major risk to the organisation and that it is a topic that should be revisited.”
Nama had paid €1.5 million in performance-related pay over the previous two years, according to their annual reports, with €500,000 paid in 2019 and €1 million in 2018.
The agency has also paid out large sums as part of their voluntary redundancy scheme with €2 million spent last year, comprising €1 million in statutory and redundancy payments, €400,000 on their ‘retention scheme’, and €600,000 for ‘gardening leave’.
Asked about the records, a spokesman for NAMA said: “[Our] remuneration committee agreed with the Minister’s position regarding the difficulty in the prevailing economic environment of applying performance-related pay alongside NAMA’s redundancy programme, which could have involved compulsory redundancy.
“The Board accepted the Committee’s recommendation on this basis, saying it was understandable in the circumstances but disappointing given the achievement of 2020 objectives and the challenge in retaining specialist staff.”
