There are 9 public holidays in Ireland each year. Public holidays may commemorate a special day or other event, for example, St Patrick's Day (17 March) or Christmas Day (25 December). On a public holiday, sometimes called a bank holiday, most businesses and schools close. Other services, for example, public transport still operate but often with restricted schedules. The list of public holidays each year is as follows:
Good Friday is not a public holiday. While some schools and businesses close on that day, you have no automatic entitlement to time off work on that day.
Easter Monday is the only public holiday that can vary significantly from year to year. The date of Easter moves every year within the international calendar for civil use. Broadly speaking, Easter should be the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after 21 March. This means that the earliest possible date for Easter Sunday in any year is 22 March, the latest is 25 April. Easter Monday will fall on the following dates between 2017 and 2020: 17 April 2017, 2 April 2018, 22 April 2019, 13 April 2020.
Your entitlement to public holidays is set out in the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997. Most employees are entitled to paid leave on public holidays. One exception is part-time employees who have not worked for their employer at least 40 hours in total in the 5 weeks before the public holiday.
Employees who qualify for public holiday benefit will be entitled to one of the following:
The Organisation of Working Time Act provides that you may ask your employer at least 21 days before a public holiday, which of the alternatives will apply. If your employer fails to respond at least 14 days before the public holiday, you are entitled to take the actual public holiday as a paid day off.
The Organisation of Working Time (Determination of Pay For Holidays) Regulations (SI 475/1997) set out the appropriate rate of daily pay.
If you have worked for your employer at least 40 hours in the 5 weeks before the public holiday and the public holiday falls on a day you normally work you are entitled to a day's pay for the public holiday. If you are required to work that day you are entitled to an additional day's pay.
If you do not normally work on that particular day you should receive one-fifth of your weekly pay. Even if you may never be rostered to work on a public holiday you are entitled to one-fifth of your weekly pay as compensation for the public holiday.
If you do not have normal daily or weekly working hours, under SI 475/1997, an average of your day’s pay or the fifth of your weekly pay is calculated over the 13 weeks you worked before the public holiday.
In all of the above situations your employer may choose to give you paid time off instead of pay for the public holiday.
If you are a full time worker on sick leave during a public holiday, you are entitled to benefit for the public holiday you missed, as described above. If you are a part-time worker on sick leave during a public holiday, you would be entitled to benefit for the public holiday, provided you had worked for your employer for at least 40 hours in the previous five-week period - see 'Part-time employees' above.
However, if you have been off work for more than 26 consecutive weeks due to illness or accident, or for more than 52 weeks due to an occupational accident and you are absent from work immediately before the public holiday because of this, you are not entitled to the public holiday.
You are entitled to leave for any public holidays that occur while you are on maternity leave, parental leave or adoptive leave. These rights are set down in law in the Maternity Protection Acts 1994 and 2004, the Parental Leave Acts 1998 and 2006, and the Adoptive Leave Acts 1995 and 2005 respectively.
You are not entitled to public holiday benefits if you have been absent from work immediately before the public holiday and your absence is:
If your employment finishes during the week ending on the day before a public holiday and you have worked for your employer for the previous 4 weeks, you should receive an additional day's pay for the public holiday. This also applies to part-time employees who have established a right to the public holiday by working at least 40 hours in the previous 5 weeks. You can read more about this in 'Further information' below.
Where a public holiday falls on a weekend, you do not have any automatic legal entitlement to have the next working day off work. This occurred in 2016/2017 when Christmas Day (25 December) and New Year's Day (1 January) fell on a Sunday. You can find out more about your public holiday entitlement for your individual working arrangement in this explanatory booklet on holidays and public holidays (pdf).
You can find out more about public holidays in this explanatory booklet on holidays and public holidays (pdf) or from the Workplace Relations Commission's Information and Customer Service - see 'Where to apply' below.
If you are not getting your public holiday entitlement you may make a complaint under the Organisation of Working Time Act within 6 months of the dispute or complaint occurring. You must use the online complaint form available on workplacerelations.ie. The time limit may be extended for up to a further 6 months, but only where there is a reasonable cause which prevented the complaint being brought within the normal time limit.
Information and Customer Service
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Carlow
R93 W7W2
Ireland
Opening Hours: Mon. to Fri. 9.30am to 5pm
Tel: (059) 917 8990
Locall: 1890 80 80 90
Fax:(059) 917 8909
Homepage: https://www.workplacerelations.ie/en/
In the case of Gazboro Ltd. -v- BATU (DWT9916) the claimants ceased to be employed on 18 December 1998. They claimed an entitlement to be paid in respect of 25 and 26 December. As the Court interpreted the wording of Section 23(2)(a) of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, the week ending at midnight on 24 December began at midnight on 18 December. Since the claimants worked for the employer during the 4 weeks preceding that week they were entitled to an additional day's pay in respect of 25 December. The week ending on 25 December began at midnight on 19 December. Since the claimants ceased to be employed on 18 December they had no entitlement under the Act in respect of 26 December.
If you have a question relating to this topic you can contact the Citizens Information Phone Service on 0761 07 4000 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 8pm) or you can visit your local Citizens Information Centre.
