The body representing local authority county managers has said it will not comment on revelations of generous leave entitlements for top officials.
Today's Irish Independent disclosed that local authority chiefs are getting up to 42 days of leave per year.
The revelations come as the IMF visits Dublin to carry out a review of progress in securing necessary savings and efficiencies.
The Croke Park Agreement aims to create an integrated public service - including the civil service, health, education and local authorities.
This will permit staff to be redeployed efficiently between them as required.
But streamlining is proving difficult - because staff entitlements vary between sectors.
This is particularly clear in relation to leave and privilege day entitlements for senior staff.
The minimum national leave entitlement is 20 days per year. All workers get nine public holidays a year.
Top civil service officials have a maximum leave entitlement of 33 days.
However, in some local authorities, senior staff including county managers can take up to 42 days off per year.
Meanwhile, an IBEC survey found average leave for top executives in private companies was 25 days - three weeks less than in local authorities. Of 34 councils surveyed by the Irish Independent, 15 responded.
Longford County Manager Tim Caffrey tops the leave league with 42 days.
Kerry County Manager Tom Curran comes second with 40.
Kildare County Council chief Michael Malone gets 39 days, including one privilege day to attend Punchestown races.
But of respondents, worst off was North Tipperary County Council's county manager Joe McGrath - who gets a total of 32 days off.
Neither the Local Government Management Services Board or the County and City Managers' Association were prepared to comment.
Sources point out that many of these leave entitlements accrued over years, and some represent the buying out of church holidays.
They also say some officials do not use up all their leave entitlement.
A spokesperson for the IMPACT trade union pointed out that only a small fraction of local authority workers get this level of leave entitlement.
However, the disparity between sectors highlights the difficulty of standardising employment conditions across the public sector.
The Government is unlikely to opt for standardisation at peak entitlements.
