Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
TODAY, A NEW public holidays bill will be brought before the Dáil by Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh.
It is not the first such bill brought by Ó Snodaigh – he brought similar legislation to Leinster House in 2013 during the lifetime of the last government, only to be turned down by then Communications Minister and Labour TD Alex White.
And today, it seems the Government is set to vote this new bill down once again.
The Public Holidays Bill 2016 is set to call officially for the amendment of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997.
More simply, it’s calling for a new public holiday in line with the 1916 centenary – 24 April, the day the week-long Rising began 100 years ago.
It is not the first mention of public holidays in the news in recent times – last week Fine Gael MEP Brian Hayes similarly called for additional days to be added to Ireland’s working calendar, saying that only three other EU countries have fewer public holidays than the nine Ireland currently has each year.
Irony
The irony of a government voting contrary to its own MEP’s wishes is not lost on Ó Snodaigh.
“Well last time out I had Alex White and I could point to contradictory statements from Ruairí Quinn, this time I don’t know who it’ll be, but I can point to Brian Hayes and the discrepancy there,” Ó Snodaigh told TheJournal.ie.
Hayes’ rationale for the provision of a new holiday seems to be mostly economic. For Ó Snodaigh patriotism in the centenary year of the Easter Rising seems to be the dominant factor.
“I think it’s appropriate, particularly given how successful the 1916 celebrations were, to have a look at the independent struggle involved,” he says.
We would be looking for a number of events in each county on the day, to look at the idea of what was contained in the Proclamation. There are concepts there that I think we should have a debate on.”
We also think it’s appropriate for Ireland to have another non-secular public holiday, to celebrate our identity.
Regarding why the government would reject his legislation, Ó Snodaigh says he “doesn’t know why” that would be the case.
“Last time out we had nothing concrete from Alex White,” he said.
I can understand Ibec (Irish Business and Employers Confederation) or ISME (Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association) having a problem due to cost to businesses maybe, but there’s no rush on this.
They could let it go to committee stage, hear from people in different interest groups, see what they have to say.
But if they do vote against it it’ll be interesting to see why, especially if Fianna Fáil vote for it.
‘Not a priority’
As it happens, the department who will be handling this isn’t Communications, but rather Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and its Minister Heather Humphreys.
TheJournal.ie queried the department as to why the new bill was to face opposition.
Throughout consultations with stakeholders as to the nature of the 1916 celebrations “the idea of introducing a public holiday to take place on 24th April in each calendar year, was not identified as a priority” a spokesperson for the Minister said.
“The Government must also take account of the very considerable costs associated with introducing a new public holiday,” they said.
The Department of Jobs estimates that the total potential loss in productivity for an additional day’s public holiday would be approximately €396 million.
Now is not the time to be heaping additional costs on small businesses, particularly as we face into the Brexit era.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
It’s not so long ago that in one of the previous elections that FG were promising an extra holiday if they were voted into Government. So it sounds about right that they turn this bill down now seeming how they broke their promises on everything else
@niall:
Prefer to have an extra day in July (giving one in each summer month) or September.
With Easter usually in April and Easter Monday already a bank holiday, we should be looking to spread the days around.
Give us a day off you miserable lousers!
Matthew don’t you know by now the only people entitled to ridiculous amounts of days off are the cosseted politicians?
Government are parasites
It’s to close to Easter and Paddys day. I’d like to see one in July that what we’d have June July and Aug, good chance of decent weather. Kids are off school so doesn’t affect school year.
The cost of a loss in productivity? They didn’t seem to think a loss in productivity mattered during their own extended summer vacation. Hell, the fact that only college students get longer summer holidays than them never seems to raise questions of productivity from them.
@Jeffrey McMahon: Pretty sure that if you combined their holidays with the unnecessarily drawn out forming of 2 parties with the same general policies, you would find they beat students for time off. We ask for 1 extra day and they shut it down.
I think I would prefer a day off in February. There is a massive gap between Christmas and Paddy’s Day.
@Lisa Saputo:@Lisa Saputo:New Year’s day is a public holiday.
The government are quick in giving themselves longer holidays and a pay rise to go with it.
Bankers won’t be happy.. Elites not for it. Europe against it. FG won’t allow it .
“I think it’s appropriate, particularly given how successful the 1916 celebrations were….”
I thought SF were saying the celebrations were totally inadequate. Well, that’s clear now.
They make us the working Donkeys of Europe, loaded up with debt, screwed with prices, and extorted by penal taxes. They say we deserve a break and something back. Then they do this.. Fill in the rest..
Don’t mind April. 1st or 2nd weekend in February would be more needee
The government give themselves huge pay rises and deny the same to everyone else. The government give themselves extra holidays and deny them to everyone else.. How are we letting them away with the shear arrogance and self righteousness of it all. They should be pulled up at every media interaction to embarrass them. But the media won’t. They just want their agreed sound bite / driven agenda quote.
Though I’m loathe to plump for another religious holiday, why not just officially make Good Friday one, instead of the quasi-holiday status it currently holds? Most people are already off, so there could be little monetary effect. While we’re at it, let’s revoke the antiquated legislation around selling alcohol that day, which will mollify the exchequer.
Another holiday in that period is foolish, as mentioned by someone else above: Patricks Day/Easter and the May bank holiday are all quite close already.
Lots of companies give free holidays, do their staff would lose out that day ;)
To be clear I called for a extra public holiday to come about by agreement. This should be part of a new national agreement encompassing pay and conditions. I also said that politicians should not be selecting the day involved for precisely the gamesmanship that we are now seeing from SF. Pretending that a grandstanding private members bill will do anything other then play politics with this issue is just another example of play acting politics.
@Brian Hayes MEP: But cant you see that in Ireland we actually have MORE public holidays than in Europe?? If holidays in Europe fall on a Saturday or Sunday they are “lost”. So this year in most European countries there are 8 days that don’t fall on the weekend. Are you trying to scam us with tokenism, whilst TDs have given themselves extra days holidays (all voting in favour) as well as nice hefty pay rise. EPs is a better word than TD- elected paracite.
Brian, you have a point. That is a game that is played by all parties unfortunately. So, what have you done other than call for this publicly, to pursue this on our behalf?
He didn’t seriously think Heather would agree to that, did he?
worrying that SF, a supposed secular, pro choice, left wing etc party are calling for non secular public holidays as they are part of our identity….
September sounds good for a Bank holiday though I bet it would cause problems at start of new school year! April would be a waste with Paddy’s day, Easter, may and June already being bank holidays
8 bank holidays in almost every European country (except the UK, Ireland and Malta- each with 9)
All a con- We have a good system where the holiday gets moved to Monday if it falls on the weekend.
In most of the other countries this year it will be 1 day off for Christmas this year (26th) for example-
have your say