The state’s bad bank Nama paid out around €1.5 million last year in redundancy and gardening leave payments as it continued to wind down its operations.
The National Asset Management Agency (Nama) said it had paid €1.1 million in redundancy to 16 different people, with payments ranging in size from less than €25,000 up to €150,000.
Nama said two people had received a lump sum of between €125,001 and €150,000 after leaving their job with the public body. Two more were paid between €100,001 and €125,000, while two former staff also received a figure in the range of €75,001 to €100,000. There were six recipients of redundancy payments of €50,001 to €75,000, and a further two who received between €25,001 and €50,000.
In the table of redundancy costs Nama also listed two individuals whose lump sums were lower than €25,000.
A further €400,000 was spent on gardening leave arrangements, where a staff member stays on the payroll but is no longer working. This usually arises in cases where a potential conflict of interest is identified between their work in Nama and a new role that they are planning to take up elsewhere.
The asset management agency said one person had received gardening leave payments ranging in value between €50,001 and €75,000. There were a further eight staff who were paid between €25,001 and €50,000 while serving out the rest of their time with Nama.
Four people also received gardening leave payments of less than €25,000, according to the data which was released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Nama said all the garden leave payments were inclusive of PRSI and pension costs for the staff member.
The asset management agency is set to complete the wind down of its work in 2025, with any remaining assets or activities transferred to a newly established resolution unit in Nama.
Staff numbers at Nama declined throughout last year with a headcount of 110 employees on January 1st, 2023, falling to 96 by December 1st, 2023.
A Nama spokesman said: “Redundancy payments arise from the agency reducing staff numbers as part of its wind-down. Garden leave payments result in no incremental cost to the agency – they would have to be incurred as a salary payment irrespective of whether the staff member was placed on garden leave or not.”
