An increasing number of Irish companies are screening staff for drug and alcohol use, according to the employers' body, IBEC.
Welcoming the comments of the President, Mrs McAleese, in the US, IBEC's director of human resources, Mr Brendan McGinty, said drug and alcohol use was costing employers millions of euro in absenteeism alone.
In the past couple of years, more and more companies were conducting pre-employment drug tests on prospective staff. Employees were also being asked to agree to on-going drug and alcohol screening, he said.
IBEC's advice to members was that, while recognising it was a "contentious issue", they should proceed with screening where employees had provided written consent.
The increasing use of screening related to a number of issues including insurance costs and compensation claims, he said. A typical case in which employers sought to have staff tested would be in the event of an accident at work.
In general, Mr McGinty said, absenteeism was estimated to cost Irish employers between €180 million to €200 million a year. This was based on the Republic's overall absentee rate of about 3.5 per cent, or an average of eight days per worker.
How much of that was down to alcohol and drug use was not known, said Mr McGinty. But a UK study had found that 8 per cent of absenteeism by manual workers and 5 per cent by non-manual workers was attributable to the use of alcohol and drugs.
Mr McGinty said the President was "right to raise the issue", although he did not wish to comment on the controversy about her doing so while in the United States.
Mr McGinty also referred to a study carried out by General Motors in the US, which concluded that drug-dependent workers were twice as likely to suffer an occupational injury and 25 times more likely to take disability leave. Those who were dependent on alcohol took three times more sick leave than the average worker, the same study found.
Further depressing statistics were quoted in last week's edition of The Economist magazine. It said one estimate had put the the overall cost of "excessive boozing" at nearly 2 per cent of the Republic's GDP, in absenteeism, crime and higher healthcare costs.
