Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 204: To ask the Minister for Finance the number of uncertified sick days taken within all sections of his Department for the years 2007 and 2008 and to date in 2009; the number of employees who have taken uncertified sick days in the categories one to ten days and over ten days; the number of uncertified sick days taken Fridays and Mondays; the number of persistent offenders with regard to uncertified sick days who have been sent for an independent doctors opinion; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15672/09]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Civil Service Sick Leave Regulations, sick leave for single or two-day absences in total not exceeding seven days in any period of twelve months may be granted without a medical certificate. If the number of day's absence without medical certificate in any period of twelve months, reckoning backwards from the date of the latest absence, exceeds seven in the aggregate, the staff member may face disciplinary measures e.g. loss of annual leave/pay.

Regular monitoring of the number of uncertified sick days taken by each individual is carried out throughout the year. For those staff members who have taken 5 days uncertified sick leave over any period of twelve months, a notification is issued by the Human Resources Unit to the staff member via their supervisor advising them that they are approaching the limits which are used as the thresholds in relation to access to promotion, payment of increments, eligibility to transfer, etc. It must be emphasised that in no circumstances can an individual take more than 7 days uncertified sick leave in any twelve month period.

* Please note the figures for 2009 are up to 31 March.

While the Deputy's concern with absences before or immediately after a weekend is understood, it is possibly important to realise that many of the Department's staff are employed on less than a full time basis e.g. split week. Accordingly the significance of Monday/Friday absences may be less than otherwise would be the case. In the timescale given, it is not possible to identify the number of sick days taken on a Friday or Monday in each of the years concerned. However, the Deputy may wish to know that the Comptroller & Auditor General is currently undertaking an examination on Managing Sickness Absences in the Civil Service.

Individual instances of sick leave (uncertified and certified) are in certain situations referred to the Chief Medical Officer for the Civil Service, who is independent in the implementation of his functions. The Chief Medical Officer has however, recommended that repeated short term absences should, in the first instance at least, be dealt with through normal internal management procedures.