Bonuses needed for key staff, says Nama chairman

Bonus payments may be needed to retain key personnel at Nama, according to the agency’s chairman, Frank Daly.

The Nama board is so concerned about keeping staff it has been in discussions with Finance Minister Michael Noonan.

“It would be in the form of a look-back after-the- event payment, not an immediate bonus payment,” said Mr Daly. “The payment would be long term and focused on retention and performance that will be evaluated in the years ahead.”

In an interview with the Irish Examiner, he and Nama chief executive Brendan McDonagh said it was something the Nama board has discussed and brought up with the minister: “It is a challenge. The market is recovering and we have highly skilled people and there is an interest in them from other players in the market. But we are caught by pay constraints. That is government policy and something we have to live with. However, we have made no secret of the fact that we would like to incentivise people to stay here on a long-term basis.”

Nama has to comply with the cap on public sector pay. However, the recovery in the Irish property market has attracted several international property firms, who have in recent months recruited senior Nama executives on salaries far higher than the public pay ceiling.

Mr McDonagh said Nama personnel are subject to public sector pay conditions but are not public servants: “They don’t have a job to the age of 65. They have a specified purpose contract as long as Nama needs them.”

Nama is scheduled to wind up in 2020.

It emerged last week that state-owned AIB raised with the Department of Finance the possibility of introducing long-term incentive payments to staff. However, the idea was condemned by TDs from the Government and the opposition.

Mr Noonan also ruled out such a move. “The answer is sorry guys, much better performance required before we’ll even consider bonuses,” he told Bloomberg TV last week. “If any executive wants to leave AIB, I’ll shake his hand and wish him fair passage as he leaves.”

A spokesman for the Department of Finance said while there had been discussions around long-term incentive schemes for Nama, “no proposals have been made at this time”.

The last figures released for salaries at Nama show that in 2012, 132 staff earned less than €100,000, while 88 earned €100,000 to €200,000. Two earned €200,000 to €300,000, while another two earned €300,000 to €400,000.