The "long hours culture" at senior management level in the civil service is a growing problem for the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants.
Its general secretary, Mr Seán Ó Ríordáin, has expressed fears that additional workloads created by Dáil reforms and the run-up to Ireland's presidency of the EU in 2004 could have serious health and other adverse effects on his members. The association is so concerned over changes planned for the Dáil that it is seeking meetings with the Opposition whips as well as the Government.
The union represents principal officers who run most of the major sections within government departments and who often report directly to ministers and secretaries general of departments.
According to Mr Ó Ríordáin the system is now approaching "administrative overload". Strategic management initiatives, strategy statements, business plans, performance management systems, financial management, e-government, freedom of information requests and other factors "are combining to make actual delivery of core job responsibilities more demanding and time consuming". He warned that new proposals to reform the Dáil would add further to his members' workload. It is usually AHCPS members who write ministers' speeches and provide briefings for them on parliamentary questions or meetings with Oireachtas committees.
If proposals to extend the period when the Dáil sits and the way it operates are implemented, "their combined effect is likely to lead to further administrative overload in which our members will be expected to regularly work late under extreme pressure to meet unreasonable deadlines.
"The proposals for Dáil reform will, quite clearly, impact on the new gender equality policy for the civil service. Independent research has established that the long hours culture at senior management level is a major inhibiting factor in terms of staff applying for senior management positions."
The burden of EU presidency would be much more onerous than in 1996, he said. The member states could well number 20 by 2004 and there were now over 200 working groups and committees, besides the councils of ministers.
The AHCPS wants early talks on the extra workload involved and wants more progress on the programme to introduce "family friendly" arrangements for its members.