Irishmen a washout for cleaning, laundry and cooking

A large majority of Irishmen do almost no cleaning, laundry, or cooking at home, a survey by the Economic and Social Research Institute has found.

The study, the first of its kind in Ireland, suggests that 81 per cent of men do no cleaning work on weekdays, while 71 per cent avoid all cooking or food preparation.The figures "change little at the weekends", the report adds.

By contrast, more than two thirds of all women say they engage in all of these activities on a daily basis. On average, women report spending five hours of each weekday on caring or household work, compared with one hour 40 minutes for men.

But the figures also show that men spend an average of seven hours daily at work or on work-related travel, compared with just three hours 47 minutes for women.

The Irish National Time-Use Survey 2005 was based on a study of 1,000 adults, who filled out diaries - one during the week and one at the weekend - detailing their activities over two 24-hour periods.

A separate survey, also commissioned by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and compiled by the ESRI, shows that male graduates working in the private sector earn more within three years of graduation than female graduates.

But the advantage is offset by women's lower working hours and their over-representation in the better-paid public sector, so that overall hourly pay rates are roughly similar for both genders.

The time-use study suggests that on weekdays, the statistically composite Irish person spends an average of just over eight hours sleeping; four hours in paid employment; one hour 50 minutes on household work; one hour 30 on caring; and five hours on leisure, including a small amount of voluntary or religious activity.

Leisure activity rises to seven hours per day on Saturday and Sunday, but women have "significantly less leisure time at weekends than men".

The survey piloted the use of "light" diary methodology, in which respondents recorded their use of time under 26 pre-defined categories, rather than the "heavy" diary, which requires a continuous narrative of the respondent's day.

The ESRI said the results provided a "nationally representative" study and filled an important gap in comparative research.