Nineteen members of staff made redundant by the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) last year shared €1.01m in redundancy payments.
According to new figures provided by NAMA in response to a Freedom of information request, numbers employed at NAMA last year reduced from 238 to 211.
The agency’s FOI unit declined to disclose the individual amounts paid out to those made redundant.
However, the average payout was €53,619.
In addition, NAMA paid out €655,519 to 20 staff members placed on ‘garden leave’ last year.
The FOI stated: “Garden leave is paid as normal salary and taxed as normal. Following external legal advice garden leave provision were included in all employment contracts.”
A spokesman for NAMA said today: “All 19 staff who received redundancy were placed on garden leave.
He stressed: “Garden leave payments are not an incremental cost and would have to be incurred as a salary payment irrespective of whether the staff member was placed on garden leave or not.”
Numbers earning over €100,000 at NAMA last year totalled 99 with chief executive, Brendan McDonagh in the €400,000 to €450,000 bracket.
The 2018 NAMA annual report stated that Mr McDonagh received remuneration that year of €435,015 made up of salary of €413,377 and taxable benefits of €21,638.
Last year, a further four staff members received pay of between €200,000 and €250,000.