These days you can hire people to walk your dog, buy your presents or even organise a funeral, if you pay enough, writes Róisín Ingle

If a job needs doing, why do it yourself, especially when there is a growing number of Irish companies willing to ensure those niggling items on your to-do list actually get crossed off?

Whether the dogs need walking or you just can't be bothered dropping the videos back, no job is too small for these modern-day servants. In the US and to a lesser extent the UK, outsourcing the more humdrum tasks in life is a long established trend. Many of the top US companies offer concierge services as standard to encourage employees not to take sick days when what they are really doing is staying at home to accept deliveries or let the plumber in.

Online outfits such as London-based Cushion the Impact offer lifestyle management and concierge services to UK customers, acting as virtual personal assistants for busy types. "Trust us to organise the aspects of your life that you don't have the time, energy or the inclination to do yourself," they entreat.

Whether we are lacking in time or just plain lazy, we are gradually getting used to the idea of delegating errands to helpers who will - for a price - complete the jobs we love to hate. Five years ago Aphria O'Brien set up Concierge Ireland, and admits that back then she wasn't sure whether this country was ready for such a concept. "At the beginning I was a bit hesitant, to be honest, but the past two years have been much better," she says. Along with a number of corporate clients, the company has around 65 individuals on its books.

"The corporate work we do involves a lot of hospitality. Companies don't want to take a member of staff away from their regular job so they call us to look after that area instead. When it comes to private clients, we have done anything from booking cleaners, to looking after their property when they are away, to organising funerals," she says.

As you might expect, their services don't come cheap, starting from €35 plus VAT per hour, but these rates can increase depending on the nature of the job.

Dublin businessman Mike Pettigrew was so convinced that Irish people were ready to explore the concept more fully that he set up Corporate Concierge six months ago. "Research shows that staff in Ireland take up to 14 days off a year to attend to personal duties which can result in a loss of millions for employers. We can do anything that's in the Golden Pages providing it's legal and that means staff don't have to take time off for the personal stuff."

Pettigrew is currently trying to convince employers to take on his "lobby concierge" service and offer a few hours free - an hour costs €30 - to each employee. "The idea is that after they use us once, they will be hooked and will pay out of their own pockets to use us in the future. The company, meanwhile, will see the benefits of a less stressed workforce," he says.

To date he has landed only one corporate client, but says a few "big names" have been road-testing the idea and are almost ready to come on board. Part of this road-testing saw an employee of one large Dublin company calling Corporate Concierge and asking them to purchase, gift wrap and deliver a Kris Kringle present to the office so they could avoid the Christmas shopping crowds.

The emergence of a time-poor, cash-rich, stress-filled society is partly responsible for this potentially lucrative gap opening up in the consumer market, but Pettigrew suggests an alternative reason for this growing trend: "Irish people have become a bit spoilt," he says.

Lifestyle management is another growth area; we used to ask our friends and family for career and personal advice, now we go to life coaches, such as Natasha Fennell.

"Time is the most precious commodity these days," she says. "These services are all about efficiency and doing things faster. If you send out your ironing, it's going to be done quicker than you would do it and allow you to get on with other tasks. These days we are all working so hard we feel we deserve these extra services."

Another indication of how fashionable it has becoming to outsource your life is the fact that there are now dog-walking companies established in most urban centres. One of the first of these, "Walkies" in south Dublin, started up four years ago and has become so busy - it has 200 dogs on its books and a waiting list of a year - that it recently expanded its service to include Dublin's northside. Co Meath-based Ann Kiernan left her job as a graphic designer to set up the company, and insists her clients are not spoilt or lazy - they just don't have enough time.

"A lot of my clients work all day and commute for hours so they have huge amounts of guilt about the amount of time they spend with their dog," she says. "Their dogs are like members of their family and they don't want them to be neglected. If they don't have time to take them out themselves, they are prepared to pay someone like me to do it."

Many of her clients pay €15 per day, five days a week for Kiernan to walk their dogs. Add on dog-minding services and it seems some people are spending more than €1,000 per year on doggie care alone.

Companies such as Suppers Ready, that deliver home-cooked, additive free food directly to the door, are already benefiting as the outsourcing trend catches on. "A lot of our regular customers work long hours and are stuck in traffic when they finish work. They might ring us from the car and their meal will be delivered around 10 minutes after they get in," says Ken Tobin, operations manager.

Screenclick.com, a new DVD delivery service for Ireland, eradicates the need for trips to the video shop and with no late fees, it's an idea that is proving popular with movie fans. Later this month AMG Car Valet will open at an upmarket gym in south Dublin, offering professional car-cleaning services to members, costing anything from €8 up to €1,000.

It will also operate a collection and delivery service for customers: "People say they haven't time and don't want to spend their weekends washing or polishing or hoovering their cars. They'd prefer to spend it with family and friends," says Adrian MacGoey of AMG.

You name it, the job can be outsourced. House sitting. Flower watering.Birthday or anniversary remembering. There are even people who queue for a living on your behalf. Q4U, a company based in Swords, Beaumont and Dún Laoghaire Shopping Centre, has been operating successfully for around 10 years. Part-time worker in the Dún Laoghaire branch Louise O'Brien says people find it hard to get time off work to sort out their motor tax or driving licence affairs so think nothing of paying to get Q4U staff to do it.

"We have the blank tax and licence forms here so people come along with all the relevant materials and then give us the completed forms," she says.

"Our staff go to the motor tax and driving licence office, queue up for whatever length of time it takes and then the clients come and pick it up. We have around 20 to 25 people coming in every day." No matter how long the Q4U staff spend in those dreaded queues, all you pay is a flat €16 fee.

It remains to be seen whether more general concierge services will take off here, but regular user Karen Hewitt from New Zealand is already hooked. "I initially used Concierge Ireland for advice about locating to Ireland when we moved here 15 months ago - anything from restaurant recommendations to advice about correct taxi fares," she says.

"Since then I have used them for all sorts of things. When I travelled back to New Zealand once, I realised I had left some food in the fridge and I rang the concierge service to ask them to get rid of it," she says. "Before I came back I asked them to have food and milk in the fridge so we wouldn't have to go shopping immediately. They even put fresh flowers in a vase."

There really is no end to the things you canhave done for you these days, especially around the house. Lloyd McDonnell's phone hasn't stopped ringing since he started calling himself a Husband for Hire and advertising his handyman service.

"I get called for all sorts of things. Broken cupboards, putting up shelves, a bit of tiling or painting," he says. "It's mostly young women living alone. I get asked to do stupid little things people could do themselves such as hang pictures but nothing too surprising."

But even in this era of outsourcing, this Husband for Hire admits there's a limit to the services he is prepared to supply for his €80 call-out charge.

10 things you can't outsource

1 Studying for exams

2 Undergoing surgery

3 Getting married

4 Giving birth

5 Your driving test

6 Going on a first date

7 Working out in the gym

8 Reading a book

9 Attending parent-teacher meetings

10 Getting out of bed in the morning