The board of Nama said it was “disappointing” they wouldn’t be allowed to pay staff bonuses after the Minister for Finance warned against it.
The agency halted performance-related pay for last year after being told by Paschal Donohoe that running a compulsory redundancy programme at the same time as paying bonuses would not be a “good mix”.
Internal records detail how the board believed this was “disappointing particularly” at a time when they were struggling to keep key staff.
They believed the suspension of payments was a “major risk” to the organisation but that they could not afford to lose the support of the finance minister, according to private session board minutes that were released under FOI.