Introduction
From 2023, there will be a new annual public holiday in early February to mark St. Brigid’s Day. The public holiday will be the first Monday in February, except where St Brigid’s day (1st February) happens to fall on a Friday, in which case that Friday 1st February will be a public holiday. Next year this public holiday will be on Monday 6th February 2023.
Public holidays
Public holidays dates in Ireland for 2023 are as follows. A public holiday is also referred to as a bank holiday.
Note: Good Friday is not a public holiday. While some schools and businesses close on that day, you have no automatic entitlement to time off work on that day.
| 2023 Public Holidays | |
| New Year’s Day | 1 January |
| First Monday in February | 6th February |
| St. Patrick’s Day | 17 March |
| Easter Monday | 10 April |
| First Monday in May | 1 May |
| First Monday in June | 5 June |
| First Monday in August | 7 August |
| Last Monday in October | 30 October |
| Christmas Day | 25 December |
| Saint Stephen’s Day | 26 December |
Public holidays entitlements
An employee’s public holiday entitlements are set out in the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997. Most employees are entitled to paid leave on public holidays. There is an exception for certain part-time employees.
- Part-time employees
A part-time employee is entitled to a day’s pay for the public holiday if they meet both these conditions:
- They have worked for their employer at least 40 hours in the 5 weeks before the public holiday and
- The public holiday falls on a day you normally work
If they are required to work that day they are entitled to an additional day’s pay.
If the employee does not normally work on that particular day, they should get one-fifth of their weekly pay. Even if the employee is never rostered to work on a public holiday, they are entitled to one-fifth of their weekly pay as compensation for the public holiday.
For example, an employee is contracted to work 15 hours a week Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and has a gross pay of €195 per week.
For the week in which the bank holiday Monday falls the employee is entitled to €39 (€195/5=€39) for the bank holiday Monday.
Meaning the total gross pay for that week is €234 (€195+€39).
If the employee works variable hours from week to week (excluding pay for overtime), the average weekly pay for the 13 weeks before the public holiday should be used to calculate public holiday pay due.
When public holidays fall on a weekend
If the public holiday falls on a day which is not a normal working day for the school (for example, on Saturday or Sunday), you are still entitled to benefit for that public holiday. However, you do not have any automatic legal entitlement to have the next working day off work.
Further information
More information on public holidays can be found on Citizen’s information website.