Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 233: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the systems his 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 he will present data for the most recent years on this matter. [39176/08]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Absences of staff on annual or sick leave are tracked through the Flexible Working Hours (FWH) system. This system applies to all administrative staff up to and including Higher Executive Officer. All staff must comply with the requirements set out in the relevant Department of Finance Circulars and this Department's Sick Leave Guidelines. The annual and sick leave of staff not on the flexible working hours system is managed by the relevant Line Manager in accordance with the above Circulars and Guidelines and recorded centrally on the Human Resources Management System (HRMS) database.

In the case of industrial staff, their sick leave records are maintained centrally on an attendance database and their annual leave records are maintained locally and monitored by line management.

I refer to the reply to Question No. 491 of 21 October 2008 which gives details of the average level of absenteeism in the Department and is within the levels publicly reported for the private sector.

Staff who are absent on sick or annual leave are not normally replaced.