The Dealer was shocked to see that staff at the Department of Agriculture have collectively taken 94,393 sick days since 2011.

Minister for agriculture Simon Coveney made the revelation in the Dáil last week, where he was responding to a question from Fianna Fáil’s Barry Cowen.

Between certified, uncertified and long-term illness, there were 30,796 sick days taken in 2011. This fell marginally to 28,523 in 2012 and to 27,733 in 2013. For the first quarter of this year, the figure was 7,341, that’s an average of 10 days per person – the national average is seven days.

To its credit, the Department has been working hard to reduce the level of absenteeism and the figures reflect that, as the numbers of people taking sick days has been falling.

There are approximately 3,000 staff in the Department of Agriculture.