Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 8 October 2020

Public Accounts Committee

Special Report 109 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency
National Asset Management Agency - Financial Statements 2019

11:30 am

Mr. Brendan McDonagh:

We are in this difficult situation where we are trying to retain certain skilled staff and then we have a voluntary redundancy programme. In fact, our voluntary redundancy programme just closed this week. We offered 33 redundancies and we only had 20 who applied for and accepted them. We have a number of people on contract, so that will hopefully make up a lot of difference. That is not surprising in the Covid-19 environment. This time last year, people wanted to leave because there were plenty of jobs in the economy but it has become different in the last six months, which is understandable. To answer the Deputy's question, everybody in NAMA will be made redundant by 2025. That is the trajectory we are on, while at the same time we hope to return at least €4 billion to the Exchequer. That is what it is about. It was never an organisation for the long term.