Public holidays in Ireland and how they affect pay
Reviewed by Mellow Editorial Team, HR & payroll content team
Public holidays in Ireland entitle most employees to a paid day off, an additional day's annual leave, or a day's pay on top of their usual wages — which benefit applies depends on whether the employee works on the day and their contract.
The nine public holidays
Ireland has nine public holidays each year:
- New Year's Day (1 January)
- St Brigid's Day (first Monday in February, or 1 February if it falls on a Friday)
- St Patrick's Day (17 March)
- Easter Monday
- May Bank Holiday (first Monday in May)
- June Bank Holiday (first Monday in June)
- August Bank Holiday (first Monday in August)
- October Bank Holiday (last Monday in October)
- Christmas Day (25 December)
- St Stephen's Day (26 December)
That is ten dates listed — but St Brigid's Day, introduced in 2023, brought the total to nine public holidays (Christmas and St Stephen's Day are treated as two separate days within that count).
What employees are entitled to
Under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, most employees are entitled to a benefit for each public holiday. The specific benefit depends on what happens on the day itself.
If the public holiday is a normal working day for the employee and they work it, they are entitled to either an additional day's pay or a paid day off at another time — whichever the employer decides.
If the public holiday falls on a day the employee would normally work but they do not work it, they are entitled to a paid day off on that day.
If the public holiday falls on a day the employee does not normally work, they are entitled to one-fifth of their weekly pay as compensation.
Employers choose which of the permitted options to apply, but they cannot simply ignore the entitlement. Many employers give the day off as a matter of course; others in sectors like retail, hospitality or healthcare require staff to work and compensate them accordingly.
Who qualifies
Part-time employees qualify for public holiday benefits provided they have worked at least 40 hours in the five weeks immediately before the public holiday. This catches most regular part-time workers.
Casual workers and those on very low hours who do not meet the 40-hour threshold in the reference period do not earn the entitlement for that particular holiday.
Employees on maternity leave, paternity leave, parental leave or sick leave continue to accrue public holiday entitlements during those absences. The employer still owes the benefit; it does not disappear because the employee was not physically at work.
How public holidays interact with annual leave
Public holidays sit separately from the statutory annual leave entitlement of four working weeks. An employer cannot use a public holiday to eat into an employee's annual leave. If a public holiday falls during a period of scheduled annual leave, the employee is entitled to an extra day of leave — effectively their annual leave period is extended by one day, or they get an alternative day off.
This is a common source of confusion. Employers who automatically schedule public holidays as annual leave without offering an alternative day are not compliant with the legislation.
Pay calculation on public holidays
The "additional day's pay" for working a public holiday is based on the employee's normal daily rate. For workers with variable hours or irregular pay, it is calculated as one-fifth of their earnings in the week immediately preceding the public holiday.
This means that for someone earning an hourly rate, the calculation is straightforward — multiply their hourly rate by the hours they would normally work in a day. For salaried employees, it is usually one day's gross salary.
From a payroll perspective, any additional public holiday pay is subject to income tax, USC and PRSI in the normal way, just like any other element of earnings. There is nothing special about the tax treatment; it goes through the payroll run and is included in the real-time submission to Revenue on or before the payday.
Keeping records
Employers are required to keep records of public holiday benefits given to each employee. If an employee raises a complaint with the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), the burden of proof falls on the employer to demonstrate that the correct benefit was provided.
A simple running record — noting the date, which benefit applied and whether the employee worked — is enough. Payroll software that flags public holidays and records which option was applied makes this straightforward, particularly for businesses with shift-based or variable-hours staff where the calculation differs across employees.
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