DONEGAL County Council staff take more than two weeks off each on the sick, new statistics show.
On average each council staff member took 11.5 days off in 2011.
However that is an improvement on the previous year when each staff member took an average of 12 days off through illness.
The time off is still twice that of staff in the private sector but is better than many other councils across the Republic.
But the ‘Services Indicators In Local Authorities Report’ also shows that cutbacks in staff is having an effect on council services.
Essential repairs to council homes were not carried out due to the lack of available staff.
The report also found that an astonishing 43% of rates in Donegal were uncollected – with businesses either refusing to pay their commercial rates or unable to due to financial pressures.
The uncollected rates amount to almost double that of unpaid household taxes from last year.