Performance bonuses of €2.6m paid in NTMA staff in 2024

Financial accounts show performance-related payments of €186,000 were paid to seven members of the NTMA's executive management team

Frank O’Connor, NTMA Chief Executive. The CEO did not receive a performance-related payment in respect of 2024 or 2023.

Performance-related payments of €2.6m were made to 271 employees in the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) in 2024, a new report by the Comptroller and Auditor General has found. 

In its 2024 report on the accounts of the public services, the comptroller said performance-related payments of €186,000 were paid to seven members of the NTMA's executive management team.

In addition, some €635,000 in performance pay was awarded to NTMA staff assigned to other agencies in 2024, with the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) receiving €306,000, the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) receiving €192,000, and Home Building Financing Ireland (HBFI) receiving €137,000.

The NTMA’s primary function is to borrow on behalf of the Finance Minister and to manage Ireland’s national debt, defined as the debt outstanding for the time being of the Exchequer.

At the end of last year, the national debt stood at €232bn, down marginally from €234bn at the end of 2023.

The cost of NAMA operations in 2024 totalled almost €34m, the report said, which included €12.4m relating to termination benefits ahead of the agencies winding up at the end of this year. 

Last year saw the transfer of €10.9bn in cash and assets from the Apple escrow account to the Irish exchequer, the report noted. In the past ten years, the net assets held by Irish Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), which is managed by the NTMA, have fallen by almost a quarter, dropping from €21.9bn to around €16.6bn at the end of 2024.

Since 2015, the net asset value held in ISIF's directed portfolio has decreased by 45%, falling from €14bn at the end of 2015 to €7.7bn at the end of last year.

This was largely driven by the transfer of receipts from the sale of shares in AIB and Bank of Ireland to the Irish Exchequer.

In April 2025, the NTMA was directed to transfer €514m from the directed portfolio to the Exchequer.

The NTMA continued to dispose of the ISIF’s AIB shares in 2024, disposing of a total of 630 million shares, and generating net proceeds of just over €3.1bn.

In July 2025, the NTMA received a fraudulent request for payment of €5m from a third party designed and timed to pass as a legitimate request for funds from an existing ISIF investee company. 

Controls intended to prevent such fraudulent requests did not prevent the payment being made by the NTMA.