The Belfast Telegraph reports that nearly £30 million was spent in two years by drafting in temporary staff to plug gaps in the civil service.

The trade union NIPSA branded the issue of agency workers "a blight on our public services" and said a lack of proper workforce planning meant that thousands of public sector staff were denied job security and could "be let go at the drop of a hat".

Figures obtained by this newspaper in a Freedom of Information request show that, from April 2017 until March 2018, £18.1 million was spent employing 1,275 agency staff. In the previous 12 months, £11.8 million was spent on 812 temporary workers.

A total of 3,000 permanent staff had left the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) in its controversial voluntary exit scheme between September 2015 and May 2016 with more than £90 million spent on redundancy packages.

However, the Department of Finance defended the employment of so many temporary workers saying the expenditure represented 1.3% of the total NICS salary bill. It said: "The use of agency staff is a legitimate and necessary way to manage some aspects of temporary work and meet particular business needs. This is normal practice in any modern large organisation providing a range of services to the public."