Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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87. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will outline in tabular form the total number of sick days taken by staff in his Department in 2011, 2012, 2013 and to date in 2014 further broken down by uncertified, certified and long-term absence leave. [28834/14]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I wish first to assure the Deputy that the management of sick leave is taken most seriously in my Department.

Sick leave absences and any patterns emerging are monitored and analysed and, as per the guidelines set out in Circular 06/2014 - Arrangements for Paid Sick Leave local managers are supported by the HR Strategy Unit to ensure that sick leave review meetings and resumption of work meetings are held with staff as appropriate.  It should also be noted that all long-term sick leave cases, i.e. absences greater than four weeks, are automatically referred to the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for advice on how to proceed with the management of those cases.  The services of the Employee Assistance Service are also available to all staff in my Department to assist them with any medical (or related issues) for which they may require support.

In terms of the data presented below, the Deputy will be aware that my Department was only formally established on 6 July 2011, and the sick leave statistics are therefore presented for the subsequent months of that year.   In addition, it is important to recognise that as part of the rollout of our essential reform agenda, my Department numbers now include staff in the Shared Services Offices (PeoplePoint and Payroll Shared Services) as well as the Office of Government Procurement. 

The table below is based on the latest information available from the Human Resource Managment System