Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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42. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will introduce a bank holiday in the month of July. [2857/21]

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.