Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 November 2012
228. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Finance the number of staff that are on a total remuneration package including pension payments, allowances and benefits between €100,000 and €200,000, between €200,000 and €300,000, between €300,000 and €400,000, between €400,000 and €500,000; and the number with more than €500,000 at the National Assets Management Agency. [47865/12]
View answerThe National Asset Management Agency has no employees. Rather, under Section 42 of the NAMA Act 2009, the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) assigns staff to the Agency. As of end-October 2012, some 227 staff had been assigned by the NTMA to the Agency. The Agency reimburses the NTMA the costs incurred in assigning these staff and in providing other business and support services. The legislation which established the NTMA in 1990 deliberately positioned it outside of the wider public service structures with the operational freedom to negotiate market-competitive salaries to enable it to compete with the private sector to attract and retain staff with specialist and highly marketable skills. Under this business model, there are no general pay grades and no pay scale and all staff are on individually negotiated contracts.
Other than a small number of staff reassigned from other functions within the NTMA, Agency staff are employed by the NTMA on the basis of specified purpose contracts – their employment lasts for as long as their particularly skills and experience are required. The total remuneration of NTMA staff assigned to the Agency, which is set out below in tabular format, reflects the fact that, given the nature of the Agency’s activities, this staffing complement is primarily composed of experienced professional staff with substantial private-sector experience. The total remuneration delineated below includes gross salary, employer pension contribution and, where applicable, other benefits. Agency staff members are subject to the Public Service Pension Deduction.
