Government to consider new bank holiday in 2021

Taoiseach Micheál Martin. Photo: Julien Behal 

The Taoiseach says that the Government will consider introducing a new bank holiday next year, in light of the challenges of 2020.

The idea has been mooted throughout the year as a means of recognising the sacrifices of the Irish people this year, with December 21 originally pencilled in. However, despite speculation in October that it would be announced the issue was not raised at Cabinet.

Labour Party leader Alan Kelly would later accuse the Government of "bottling" the decision. Micheál Martin rejected that notion at the time, saying the issue had never been raised.

“There was no bank holiday date in my mind yesterday," he said. "I don’t know where that came from. There was a lot more in my mind than the awarding of the bank holiday, I can tell you that.”

However, speaking at a pre-Christmas briefing with journalists, Mr Martin said that the idea will be considered. He said that it was one of a number of ideas which could be looked at in order to recognise the work of people this year. However, he said that other ideas could also be looked at.

"I think that is one potential, yes, that we could do in terms of reflecting and acknowledging the work of many workers in different fields and in different sectors, and which I referenced earlier," he said.

We will consider it."

In Europe, only Hungary, the Netherlands, and the UK (eight) have fewer public holidays than Ireland (nine) and globally, only Mexico has fewer public holidays (seven). On the upper end, Austria, Sweden, Poland, and Portugal each have 13, though some countries in Europe do not make up for lost holidays which happen to fall on weekends.

The Tourism Recovery Taskforce earlier this year said, among its recommendations, that an additional bank holiday in the off-peak season should be considered to boost the flagging tourism sector. 

Dates which have been suggested for a potential new holiday are in March alongside St Patrick's Day, July, November, or December in the run-up to Christmas.