Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 80: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the systems her Department has in place for tracking absences from work for various reasons, for benchmarking them against best standards and for estimating the cost of cover or lost input as a result of these absences; and if she will present data for the most recent years on this matter. [39175/08]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Staff of my Department are entitled to be absent, subject to prior approval, for a number of reasons (e.g. Maternity Leave, Paternity Leave, Adoptive Leave, Carer's Leave etc.). Clear procedures are in place in my Department for the approval and recording of such absences.

Staff of my Department are also entitled to be absent from work when they are ill, in accordance with the terms of the Civil Service sick leave regulations. Clear notification procedures are in place and all sick leave is monitored for compliance with sick leave regulations. For this purpose, sick leave is measured in "duration days" (span of sickness absence from date of first absence to date of return to work) rather than actual working days lost. Separately, my Department has begun detailed examination of sickness absence, applying international best practice principles. Our first such examination was done in respect of the calendar year 2007. According to this analysis, the percentage of working days lost due to sickness absence was 3.90% in 2007 and 4.02% in 2006. Currently, my Department does not cost the impact of absences.