NTMA and Nama staff should face pay cuts, says Bruton

Staff at the National Treasury Management Agency and the National Asset Management Agency should face the same pay cuts as other workers in the public sector under the new Croke Park agreement, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton has said.

NTMA and Nama employees were not covered by the original Croke Park deal but Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has told the NTMA that its staff should expect pay cuts under the new agreement.

Speaking on a trade mission in Texas, Mr Bruton said the €1 billion in savings being sought on the public service pay and pensions bill should be “spread evenly and fairly”.

‘Broadest shoulders’

“To leave any section out would be manifestly unfair,” he said in Austin, on the penultimate day of the four-day trade mission. “I think we structured the package in a way that it would be seen to be fair, that those with the broadest shoulders would be carrying the heaviest load and I think that it is important that all organisations are seen to be part of that.”

The Minister ruled out extending the pay cuts, which include 10 per cent cuts on amounts of more than €185,000, to State-owned AIB or Permanent TSB, or Bank of Ireland, which is partly State-owned.

“The banking sector is a separate issue; they will manage that. I don’t think the Government is seeking to dictate the detailed terms of how they manage that,” he said.

Yesterday Mr Bruton met the Republican governor of Texas, Rick Perry, whom, he said, had noted that the state experienced a property crash in the 1980s and was now the second-largest state economy in the US. Texas accounted for more than half of all job growth across US in recent years, said the Minister.

Texas ties

Speaking to Irish businesses at a luncheon in Austin, Mr Bruton said the Government had been “negligent of Texas” and wanted to create stronger business ties with the southern US state.

He said the “clusters” of medical devices and IT companies and oil and gas companies in Ireland and Texas created opportunities to develop business links between the two economies.

Texas had also created “a cauldron” of venture capitalist and emerging technologies funding, which Ireland was also seeking to develop given the financing difficulties in the Irish banking system.