Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Finance the reason employees of the National Treasury Management Agency have not had the same pay cuts applied to their salaries as civil servants; if there are other State bodies which have not been affected by the so-called across the board pay cut applied to the civil service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46858/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Under the NTMA business model, its remuneration structure is such that there are no general pay grades and no pay scales and all staff are on individually-negotiated contracts. The legislation which established the NTMA positioned it outside of the wider public service structures with operational freedom to negotiate market competitive salaries so that it would have, for example, the flexibility to recruit and retain specialists in mid-career from the private sector. This business model has been essential in enabling the NTMA to staff itself with the necessary technical expertise to successfully carry out the financial and risk management functions which have been assigned to it. Indeed the NTMA has been required to recruit very actively in the market over the last two and a half years in respect of NAMA, banking system functions and NewERA. In the case of NAMA, most people are employed on the basis of specified purpose contracts, which means that as NAMA winds down and certain functions cease, their term of employment will come to an end.

The public sector pension deduction provided for in the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2009 applies to all NTMA staff. The NTMA was not subject to the general reductions in salaries provided for in the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Act 2009 on the basis it would avail of the flexibility inherent in its remuneration model to deliver payroll savings. In 2010 it secured a reduction of some 8% in overall payroll costs, on a like-for-like basis compared with the previous year, through a reduction in the performance-related element of overall remuneration. In 2011, it secured a further reduction of almost 3% in overall payroll costs, again on a like-for-like basis.

In addition, all fifteen NTMA employees whose salaries exceed €200,000 agreed to my request of December 2011 that they waive 15% of salary or such amount of salary as exceeds €200,000 if application of the full 15% reduction would bring their salary to below €200,000.