Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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129. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if consideration is being given to having an extra bank holiday in 2021 or 2022. [24505/21]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The legislation which provides for public holidays is the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997. This Act provides that certain days may be prescribed as public holidays. At present, there are nine public holidays.

An extra holiday has implications of a broad nature in terms of costs and productivity and has cross-government issues to be explored.

Any proposal for the provision of an additional public holiday would require careful consideration and wide-ranging consultations with relevant stakeholders. Not least we would need to consider the implications and impact of any new public holiday on employment and for the economy at large, in particular the extra costs it would impose on employers already dealing with the Covid-19 crisis and Brexit.