MARK O'DOHERTY is, in his lifestyle, straight from the mould of the overworked executive who puts the rest of us to shame.
The 31-year-old Dubliner not only puts in a five-day week like ordinary mortals but often comes in on Saturdays or works late into the evening because at these hours "you can get things sorted out".
And, like any dynamic businessman in the Celtic Tiger economy, he has several sources of income.
There is only one problem: for his main job he is paid £80.33 a week. And his extra income comes from working in nightclubs and cleaning offices.
For Mark is one of a very large army of people around the country who do vital work for little or no pay. As we congratulate ourselves on the Celtic Tiger economy, we might reflect on just how much of our prosperity depends on not paying the Marks of this world to keep the show on the road.
The particular show which Mark and his colleagues are keeping on the road is at the Irish Refugee Council in Dublin.
One would imagine that the work of coping with this most complex of issues and of liaising with the Eastern Health Board, Dublin Corporation, the Department of Justice, et al, would be done by people with proper jobs. Instead, it is done, for the most part, by people working on a Community Employment Scheme.
All over the Republic important work is done in communities and in bodies such as the Irish Refugee Council by people on this and other schemes.
On the Community Employment Scheme, people are supposed to work for 19 1/2 hours a week but in the Irish Refugee Council the reality is very different.
"Quite often the refugees are very distressed," Mark says, "especially unaccompanied minors whose parents may have been killed by the police in their own country. In a situation like this you can't just drop everything and leave."
He supplements his income working in clubs at night and cleaning offices. The extra money, he says, "goes on bus fares and food".
Lena Barrett (23) is a Kerry woman who recently turned down a job in the Civil Service because she wants to work in the area of human rights. But it makes her angry that she and most of the other workers in the Irish Refugee Council are expected to do important work for the State and for society for next to nothing.
"Yesterday, I was meant to work from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. but I left my last meeting at 10.30 at night," she says. "I don't think I have ever had a day that I left when I was meant to leave."
Like all truly busy people, she can pack more into a day than ordinary mortals - she is also doing her master's degree in law and studying for bar exams.
Valerie O'Brien (22), a Tipperary woman who is a colleague of Mark and Lena, was a full-time Simon worker and also did youth work in Ballymun. She is learning that the price for wanting to do this kind of work is a low income and long hours. "You are supposed to do 19 1/2 hours on a community employment scheme but we end up doing twice that," she says.
And the question of paying them a real working wage seems never to arise. Yet there is little doubt that were the scheme workers to stop what they are doing the social fabric would collapse.
But the Celtic Tiger won't pay.