Sick pay for civil servants in Northern Ireland reached its highest level in four years in 2007, figures have revealed.

A written question to finance minister Peter Robinson showed sickness cost a total of £25,649,986 last year.

DUP MLA Stephen Moutray claimed this amounted to more than 300,000 working days in a year, but unions claimed that public service sick leave was no greater than that in the private sector.

He said there were different sickness levels between departments, with the Department of Social Development averaging 18.7 days per employee per year and the Department of Regional Development at 10 days.

"MLAs are charged to ensure we get good value for money on behalf of the taxpayer," he said.

"Steps need to be taken across all departments to drive these figures down urgently."

However, John Corey from the Nipsa union said that civil servants often had "highly stressful" jobs.

He pointed out that the 30,000-strong workforce would inevitably mean hundreds of people were off sick and claimed the figures were "skewed".

"We, as a trade union, have been asking for a very long time for a serious examination of the causes of sick leave and particularly for a full assessment and examination of the levels of stress the civil service feel in their day-to-day work," Corey said.