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Irish businesses should appoint a "pandemic tsar" to help deal with the potential fallout from the swine flu pandemic, the Health Service Executive said today.

The HSE said that while businesses should not overreact, they should put in place adequate plans to deal with the possibility of increased absenteeism.

The HSE is estimating an absenteeism rate of up to 15 per cent as a result of the H1N1 virus, which has killed more than 700 people globally. A number of studies in the US revealed up to 70 per cent of businesses have not prepared for the flu pandemic.

"It's possible that we have the same scenario in this country," the HSE's national director of communications Paul Connors said.

"This is the perfect smouldering crisis in that we have seen it come for quite a while, and while it's on us at this stage it's very likely...that it's going to get worse."

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Connors warned that businesses should not panic but should start to plan and "use this time as a wake-up call".