Gerard Murphy (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 1095: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the amount of days a person who is working 10 hours per week are allowed in one year; if they have floating days; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43734/06]

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 provides that the annual leave of an employee who works 10 hours per week is 8% of the total number of hours he or she works in a leave year subject to a maximum of four working weeks. These hours of annual leave are converted into days in accordance with the normal number of hours the employee works per day. The leave year means a year beginning on the 1st day of April. The working week expressed in days is the number of days an employee usually works in a week. Any leave in excess of the statutory limit is a matter for negotiation between the employee and his or her employer.

The 1997 Act also provides that a part-time employee who works at least 40 hours in the five week period ending immediately before a public holiday would be entitled to one of the following four options determined by his or her employer in respect of that public holiday:

(a) a paid day off on that day, or

(b) a paid day off within a month of that day, or

(c) an additional day of annual leave, or

(d) an additional day's pay.

There are nine public holidays as follows:

1. New Year's Day (January 1),

2. St. Patrick's Day (March 17),

3. Easter Monday,

4. The first Monday in May,

5. The first Monday in June,

6. The first Monday in August,

7. The last Monday in October,

8. Christmas Day (December 25),

9. St. Stephen's Day (December 26).