185,000 State sick days cost taxpayers €27m

More than 185,000 sick days were recorded across all government departments last year at a cost of €27m.

The biggest offender was Joan Burton’s Department of Social Protection, where 71,680 sick days were clocked up at a cost of more than €9m to the State.

Simon Coveney’s Department of Agriculture was next. It lost 30,796 days to sickness, which cost €4.6m.