The overall remuneration of NTMA senior management has been reduced very substantially this year due to their waiving of the performance-related element of their remuneration in respect of 2010. The public sector pension deduction provided for in the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2009 applies to all NTMA staff. While the NTMA was not subject to the general reductions in salaries provided for in the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Act 2009, in 2010 it secured a reduction of some 8% in overall payroll costs, on a like-for-like basis compared with the previous year, through a reduction in the performance-related element of overall remuneration. In 2011, it secured a further reduction of almost 3% in overall payroll costs, again on a like-for-like basis.
Staff recruited by the NTMA and assigned to the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) in 2010 and 2011 have been recruited on specified-purpose contracts — their term of employment lasts for as long as NAMA requires their particular function.
It is my intention to examine the approach to remuneration in the NTMA in more detail in the coming months following consultation with my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. I will then see what changes, if any, might be appropriate in relation to the remuneration of all staff in the NTMA, having regard to the changing economic circumstances of the State and the need for transparency in public expenditure.