Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I will not engage in prophecy at this stage but it is important to remember the context of the league table of public holidays. I find league tables in general to be quite misleading, and this table does not take account of the holiday entitlements of people, which are in many respects considerably more flexible than set public holidays, as long as people have the choice of when to take them. The number of public holidays in Ireland, nine, is not the lowest among EU member states.

I take Deputy Quinn's point regarding families and there are family-friendly policies in place that have been advanced considerably in recent times. In general workers value the flexibility of their own entitlement to holidays in many respects more than public holidays. From that perspective it would certainly be in the interests of the country that when this issue is discussed at a serious level, the social partners will be involved in consultation.

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