WHETHER YOU CALL it a bank holiday, public holiday or long weekend, if you are an employee you are likely to have returned to work in the new year counting down the weeks to the next one.

This St Brigid’s weekend in the first week of February is our newest one, which means most of us will enjoy a paid day off work on Monday.

It was introduced by the previous government as part of a package of new employment rights to thank workers for getting us through the pandemic.

When are they?

We have ten public holidays each year: New Year’s Day, St Patrick’s Day, Easter Monday, the first Monday in February, May, June and August, the last Monday in October, Christmas Day and St Stephen’s Day.

In years where St Brigid’s Day, 1 February, falls on a Friday that Friday will be the public holiday instead of the first Monday. This will happen in 2030.

Good Friday is not a public holiday. It is a bank holiday – banks close on the day. Other workplaces choose to take Good Friday off, but it is not an official holiday covered by legislation. It is in the UK and Northern Ireland. For the rest of us, it is a normal working day.

Do some employees miss out?

To ensure that all employees get the benefit of a public holiday, if you work on the day one falls your employer must instead give you a different day off within a month, or add an extra day to your annual leave, or pay you a day’s pay in lieu. Your employer gets to decide which option will apply.

Part-time employees also qualify, but you must have worked at least 40 hours in total in the five weeks prior to the public holiday. Part-timers, who don’t normally work the day the holiday falls on, are entitled to be paid one-fifth of their weekly pay.

How much do they cost business?

Bringing in a new public holiday was not without its critics among employers concerned about the increased labour costs for their business, with one hotelier going so far as to claim “no one wanted” another one. Some 2.5 million employees beg to differ.

But public holidays do come at a cost. A Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment impact assessment estimated the cost of an extra public holiday for the economy as a whole was 0.09% of Gross Value Added in 2023, which is €355 million.

However, the cost of a public holiday is not evenly spread across the economy. Some sectors, such as tourism, hospitality, recreation and retail, are impacted more heavily because of the wage costs for staff working on the day and their high share of part-time employees, who are entitled to compensation. On the other hand, people spend more money on public holidays and these sectors benefit most from this boost in consumer spending.

Does Ireland have too few?

The new St Brigid’s weekend brings the number of public holidays to 10 a year, putting us on an equal footing with Northern Ireland but still lagging behind the EU average of 12 a year. This doesn’t necessarily mean Irish workers are getting short-changed.

In many European countries, certain public holidays aren’t automatically replaced if they fall on a Saturday or Sunday. Unless covered by an agreement between their union and employer to time off in lieu of public holidays falling on a weekend, employees in those countries will have fewer days off work in some years than in others.

In Ireland, when a public holiday falls on a weekend the law entitles employees to a substitute day off, with most businesses opting to remain closed the following Monday. This guarantees all Irish employees the benefit of 10 public holidays every year.

Should they be scrapped?

It would be a very brave decision by a government to take away workers’ holiday time. But it has happened, with predictable backlash. In 2005 France scrapped one of its 11 public holidays.

Not only did French employees lose their right to a paid day off, but they were to work the extra day without pay — their wages going into a government fund for improving eldercare. Employers and the self-employed were exempt from this 100% income tax ‘day of solidarity’. After three years of anger and resistance from PAYE workers and their unions, the public holiday was restored.

In Ireland, low-paid workers don’t generally get more than the legal minimum annual leave required of their employer – 20 days for a full-time employee, which has remained unchanged for nearly 30 years. Public holidays bump up their time off work to 30 days.

So, while public holidays originally became law way back in 1871 to give workers a well-deserved break, they still fulfil this vital function.

Dr Laura Bambrick is a social policy officer at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.