Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 54: To ask the Minister for Finance the number of cases the National Asset Management Agency allows debtors to retain part of the income from their income producing assets to pay overheads including salaries to the debtors themselves; the number of cases in which debtors are receiving salaries; if he will provide a breakdown of the salaries received by these debtors; the number that are under €50,000, between €50,001 and €100,000; the number that are between €100,001 and €150,000; the number that are between €150,001 and €200,000; the number that are over €200,001; and the total cost to NAMA of paying these salaries in 2010 and 2011. [11838/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by NAMA that it does not pay salaries to debtors or their employees as NAMA is not their employer. NAMA inform me that it is the agency's practice to allow debtor companies to retain overhead costs from rental or other income that are produced by their assets where this is necessary for the company's operations. In a minority of cases, where assets are under development and not yet producing income, funds are advanced to debtors to cover essential overheads pending the completion of the project involved. NAMA assures me that the level of overheads is only agreed following a thorough and rigorous evaluation of the debtor's business plan by NAMA and that each cost element is reduced to the minimum. The level of overheads sanctioned by NAMA typically represents very significant reductions on the level which prevailed in the past. Indeed, I am informed that NAMA has on occasions looked for and obtained a reduction of 50% to 75% in overhead costs.

The retention of overheads from income in certain circumstances is considered essential to reaching an agreement that would generate a better rate of return than the option of enforcement and the employment of asset managers for the large portfolios with the significant potential cost involved. The decision to work with debtors, and in such cases the level of overheads that are approved are decisions for NAMA to make on a case by case basis in line with its commercial mandate. Indeed it would be unrealistic to expect debtors and their staff to work with NAMA in some cases for the next seven years for no income.

I am informed by NAMA that the majority of debtor remuneration packages fall into the €70,000 to €100,000 range. NAMA has also indicated that in two cases the debtors' remuneration package authorised by NAMA as part of the budget for overheads is €200,000.

NAMA deals with about 800 debtor connections, either directly or through the participating institutions acting on its behalf. Each debtor's circumstances are different and the Agency considers that details of its engagement with those 800 debtor connections, including details of sanctioned overheads, is an operational matter for NAMA.