BAD NEWS FOR lovers of three-day weekends and mid-week lie-ins.
The government today voted down a motion to hear Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh’s proposed Public Holidays or Lá na Poblachta Bill, meaning 24 April will not be a public holiday next year.
Ó Snodaigh had hoped that the bill would mean a national holiday on the actual date of the 1916 Rising, starting next year.
The government yesterday announced €50 million in funding for commemorations of the Rising, but today outvoted Sinn Féin and the opposition on hearing the bill, by 82 votes to 37.
Sinn Féin says that the bill would establish a board which would promote events around the holiday to acknowledge:
“[T]he contribution made to the Irish nation by those who, during the centuries of occupation of Ireland by a foreign power, gave their lives and liberty to pursue the freedom of the Irish nation.”
The €50 million will see almost €31 million provided for what the Government calls “major capital works” and additional funding for “an inclusive and wide ranging national and international commemorative programme”.
Another €3 million has been earmarked for Culture Ireland’s international programme for 2016, and the Abbey Theatre.
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