Civil service sickness 'too high'/BBC, 4 September 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7597148.stm
"There area unacceptably high levels of sickness leave within the civil service, a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report has revealed. In May, an Audit Office report found that Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) staff took four more days off, on average, than the rest of the UK."