Sick-leave figures in the Department of Social and Family Affairs were high when compared to other areas of the Civil Service, the Dáil was told.
Minister for Social and Family Affairs Séamus Brennan said that last year, the total number of sick days recorded, in respect of a total workforce of about 4,730 people, was 6.6 per cent of the potential working days in the year.
"It was also 6.6 per cent in 2003. The average number of sick days per employee was 13.5 working days, down from 13.6 days in 2003," he added.
"Some 92.4 per cent of the total number of sick days in 2004 were covered by medical certificates, while 22.7 per cent of the department staff took no sick leave during the year and, overall, 38.8 per cent took less than two days," the Minister said.
Dan Boyle (Green Party, Cork South Central) said one of the factors to explain the sick leave rate was that staff must deal with the public, who themselves were sometimes in distressed states.
Mr Brennan said the best reason he could offer was that many of the staff were front-line, dealing sometimes with very difficult situations and sometimes in difficult areas.
"That is one possible explanation, though, and more work is needed to fully ascertain the situation," he said.
