David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Let me clear this up as it would be useful for us. Can we go back to the Department and get a gender breakdown and an age profile for each Department? That might give us the full picture of what Mr. McKeon is saying. I am not saying that staff do not have an entitlement to apply for sick leave, of course they do. For example, we are very sympathetic to the type of job the staff of the Irish Prison Service have. My concern is that if there is a problem in a Department where people are out sick for whatever reason, we would want to know to improve the situation for the staff. It is not an attack on the staff at all; quite the opposite. It is a concern when the figures are so high. Maybe Mr. McKeon is right, if we delve deeper into the figures, but we will come back to it once we get that breakdown.