Central Bank staff to share in €500,000 retention bonuses

Close to 30 Central Bank staff will receive bonuses of more than €16,000 each in return for staying in their jobs with the State institution for a period of years.

The bank, responsible for regulating financial services, has been struggling to keep skilled workers, who can obtain better pay and conditions in the private sector as the economy recovers.

It confirmed on Tuesday that it has agreed to pay close to 30 of its staff a total of €501,530 over a period of years on condition that they continue to work for institution for a specified period of time.

The workers involved will receive an average of more than €16,700 each. “These are retention payments and not bonuses,” the Central Bank said in a statement.

The bank agreed the payments individually with the workers involved. It will pay the money in stages to each staff member over a set period of time.

“These payments are made in a number of tranches designed to ensure the continuity of service of staff,” its statement explained. It confirmed that if all payments were made, the total cost would be €501,530.

“There is no ongoing salary increase involved and the amounts paid are non-pensionable and are subject to normal deductions, including the pension levy,” its statement said.

Bonus payments

The Central Bank is subject to financial emergency law that includes provisions designed to rein in excessive bonus payments and other incentives that were partly blamed for the culture that led to the 2008 crash.

On Tuesday it stressed that its staff retention scheme had to comply with the legislation, called the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act.

The institution took legal advice last year before introducing the policy under which the staff in question will receive the payments.

It said that the policy would be applied in accordance with strict governance and to specified criteria. Its statement pointed out that the institution faced challenges in keeping and attracting staff in a competitive market.

“In some areas and for certain skills, these challenges can be acute,” it explained. “This is why, in very limited circumstances, it has become necessary to take action to address this risk.” Central Bank management briefed representatives of Unite, the union which represents many of its staff, on the retention scheme in May and provided them with further details since then.