Nineteen staff made redundant by Nama share €1m

Redundancy payments to 19 staff at the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) last year totalled €1.01 million.

According to new figures provided by Nama in response to a Freedom of Information request, numbers employed at the agency last year fell to 211.

The agency’s FOI unit declined to disclose the individual amounts paid out to those made redundant. However, the average payout was €53,619.

In addition, Nama paid out €655,519 to 20 staff members placed on “garden leave” last year.

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The FOI stated: “Garden leave is paid as normal salary and taxed as normal. Following external legal advice, garden leave provisions were included in all employment contracts.”

A spokesman for Nama said: “All 19 staff who received redundancy were placed on garden leave.

He stressed that “garden leave payments are not an incremental cost and would have to be incurred as a salary payment irrespective of whether the staff member was placed on garden leave or not”.

The number of staff earning more than €100,000 at Nama last year totalled 99, with chief executive Brendan McDonagh in the €400,000-€450,000 bracket.

The 2018 Nama annual report stated that Mr McDonagh received remuneration that year of €435,015, comprising salary of €413,377 and taxable benefits of €21,638.

Last year a further four staff members received pay of €200,000-€250,000. The figures show that 13 earned €150,000-€200,000 and 81 earned €100,000-€150,000.

The Nama spokesman stated that at the end of December, Nama’s outstanding loan book totalled €1.8 billion, involving 200 debtors.