Civil servants across government departments average two weeks of sick leave per year
Darragh Mc Donagh
Civil servants across 10 government departments have taken more than 640,000 sick days in the past four years – an average of more than two weeks per employee every year.
The number of sick days taken by staff in the departments last year was 21 per cent higher than in 2022, with around 13,500 workers taking 175,802 days off due to illness, new figures reveal.
The department with the highest level of illness-related absenteeism was the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, with staff taking an average of more than three weeks off every year.
Justice, Home Affairs and Migration was the department with the lowest level of absenteeism, with workers missing for an average of five days in each of the past four years.
Elsewhere, staff at the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht were absent for an average of 9.35 days per year due to illness, with 8,010 days lost since 2022.
The figures were provided by government ministers in response to a series of parliamentary questions submitted by Fine Gael TD John Paul O’Shea last week.
They reveal that over 47 per cent of the total number of sick days were taken by staff in the Department of Social Protection, with workers missing 302,818 days since 2022 – an average of 6.65 each year per employee.
The data relates to civil servants working in government departments rather than public servants, such as nurses and teachers, working in the broader public service.
A total of 52,999.27 days were lost as a result of illness in the Department of Education and Youth over the past four years – an average of 7.2 per employee each year.
Similarly, staff at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage accounted for 47,680.43 sick days, or an average of just under seven days per employee each year.
The figures included the departments of Defence, Transport, Public Expenditure, Education and Youth, Agriculture, Rural and Community Affairs, Health, Social Protection, Housing, and Justice. The total number of sick days since 2022 was 642,739.1, averaging 12.75 per employee each year.
Agriculture Minister Martin Heydon said the management of sick leave is governed by the Public Service Sick Leave Scheme and associated circulars.
“Departments have a duty to ensure that staff absences due to illness are recorded and managed appropriately, and that staff receive any entitlements to which they are due under the scheme,” he added.
The scheme provides for up to 92 days on full pay in a 12-month period where a worker is absent due to illness or injury, followed by a maximum of 21 days on half pay over the next 12 months.
This is subject to a maximum of 183 paid sick leave in a rolling four-year period.
