NAMA TO PAY OUT BONUSES TO KEEP KEY STAFF - The National Asset Management Agency will offer bonuses in order to retain key employees until the agency shuts, writes the Irish Independent.
NAMA has won Government backing for a "modest retention payment" to encourage key staff to remain at the agency, its chairman Frank Daly said. As the agency revealed yesterday that its profit last year more than doubled, Mr Daly said Finance Minister Michael Noonan had signed off on the scheme designed to persuade critical staff not to leave. The agency had been making the case for incentives to retain top talent to see out its operations as it begins its wind-down. NAMA is making around 78 people at the bad bank redundant this year, with another 167 in 2016 as it advances its wind-down plans. But Mr Daly added that progress had been made in being able to encourage the key staff needed to see out the agency's work remain. "We have engaged, I think quite productively, with the minister in recent months on behalf of the board in relation to getting some sort of a modest retention payment which would help us keep people that we need right to the end," Mr Daly said."If somebody wants to go, that's fine. But if we want to keep somebody, we have got agreement on a modest retention payment. It will go a considerable way towards allaying our fears about losing staff."
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VOLATILITY IN IRISH GROWTH FIGURES HINDERS FORECAST - The volatility in official Irish figures for economic growth ranks among the highest in the western world, according to a new analysis from the Economic & Social Research Institute. The Irish Times says that a paper by ESRI researcher Niall Conroy suggests that the difficulties in measuring Irish gross national product and gross domestic product on a quarterly basis are at their greatest at turning points in the economy. “Today’s note shows that the volatility in quarterly GNP and GDP in Ireland is amongst the highest in the OECD,” said Mr Conroy in reference to his paper titled Irish Quarterly Macroeconomic Data, A Volatility Analysis. “We can also see that the high levels of volatility are evident in several sectors of the economy, particularly those with a strong multi-national corporation presence.” He added: “While the rate of volatility in quarterly GNP and GDP has been highlighted previously, we can see that volatility is at its highest at potential turning points in the economy.” This is crucial from an analytical perspective when the economy moves from recession to growth, as seen in recent times, or from growth into recession, as seen when Ireland’s economy crashed. While such changes call for a policy response, volatility in growth figures are a hindrance.
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NO OBJECTION TO BUILDERS WHO WENT BUST - MICHAEL NOONAN - There can be no objection to developers who went bust during the country’s economic collapse from playing a full part in construction and development, Finance Minister Michael Noonan has said. He made the comments at a media briefing on NAMA’s annual report, which showed that the agency last year financed a large part of all the new homes built in Dublin says the Irish Examiner. By the end of next year, NAMA said it will have facilitated the completion of 4,500 new homes in the region. It funded 40% of all new housing in Dublin last year. Asked whether the Government should have concerns about the involvement of developers from the boom years in new building projects, Mr Noonan said part of NAMA’s role was to tap their expertise and to get developers active again in the economy. "My view is that the sector was totally broke and NAMA fulfilled an enormous function,” he said. “This is how you resolve a sector that is totally under water.” Mr Noonan said he hoped that more debtors would be able to exit NAMA in the coming years. NAMA now has more than 630 debtors on its books, compared with 780 when it started off five years ago, according to chairman Frank Daly.
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VICTORY FOR ADBLOCKING SOFTWARE - Making software available to block advertising online is not illegal, a German court ruled on Wednesday, in a judgment that poses a challenge to the revenues of global media groups. The operation of a “whitelist” of acceptable ads that are allowed through adblocking filters in exchange for a fee - a business model that media groups have likened to “extortion” - is also not in breach of the law, Munich’s district court ruled. The decision marks a victory for the rapidly growing business of producing software that removes ads, reports the Financial Times. Adblock Plus, made by German start-up Eyeo, has become one of the most popular free extensions on Chrome and Firefox browsers, threatening the $120 billion online advertising market. Eyeo says its software has been downloaded more than 400 million times worldwide. The case was brought by German broadcasters RTL and ProSiebenSat.1, who did not focus on the software itself but alleged that Eyeo’s business model - including the use of a list of acceptable ads - breached laws on competition, copyright and market dominance.
