User:Jnestorius/Public holidays in Ireland

Public holidays in the Republic of Ireland

Summary

• "weekday" excludes only Sun, not Sat
  • Since 1997 no auto xfr Sun to Mon, but prev proviso of compensation now extended
• "bank holiday" equiv "public holiday" most purposes since 19??; abolished 1989
• "Church holiday" option
• govt could give banks permission to close "as though" bank holiday, without it being such (and without non-bank holiday).
  • Ferret out all such orders
    • Some based on temp act 1946 expired 1959
  • Now it seems only in emergency?
• 1924 power to amend holidays: how exercised, documentary evidence; banks only or public also.
• SIs made under Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 Sch. 2 para. 1(g)
  • COVID extra holiday 18-03-2022, from 2023 first Mon in Feb (or 1 Feb if Fri) St Brigid's Day.

Sources

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/leave_and_holidays/public_holidays_in_ireland.html Where a public holiday falls on a weekend, you do not have any automatic legal entitlement to have the next working day off work. This occurred in 2013 when St Patrick's Day (17 March) fell on a Sunday. This meant that Monday 18 March 2013 was not a public holiday. Your employer can require you to attend work on those days. When this happens you are entitled to one of the following:

A paid day off within a month of the public holiday An additional day of annual leave An additional day's pay

This actually is a 1997 innovation; e.g. 1973 had "(a) Christmas Day if falling on a weekday or, if not, the next Tuesday, (b) St. Stephen's Day if falling on a weekday or, if not, the next day," where "weekday" means only Sunday, not Saturday.

http://www.lawreform.ie/_fileupload/RevisedActs/WithAnnotations/HTML/EN_ACT_1997_0020.htm#SCHED2

ORGANISATION OF WORKING TIME ACT 1997 / REVISED / Updated to 15 April 2014

shows indeed two invocations, 1999 and 2001

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2001/en/si/0419.html

Friday 14 Sep 2001 holiday and Day of Mourning for September 11 attacks

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1999/en/si/0010.html

12-31-1999 3rd millennium

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1997/en/act/pub/0020/sched2.html#sched2

12-25 12-26 3-17 1-1 5-M-1 6-M-1 8-M-1 10-M-L E+1

1-6 8-15 11-1 12-8 E+40 E+60

• Report Stage Eithne FitzGerald: On Committee Stage, section 21 and the Second Schedule were amended. The effect of these amendments was to remove the need to define what a day of the week is for the purpose of a public holiday. A public holiday could arise any day of the week, including Sunday if, for example, St. Patrick's Day fell on a Sunday. The Bill now provides that employees are entitled to a public holiday regardless of what day of the week the public holiday falls on and regardless of whether the employee is normally obliged to work on that day or not. They would get their day in lieu for St. Patrick's Day falling on a Sunday.
• Select Committee Stage Second Schedule
  • amendment No. 45:

    In page 33, paragraph 1(a), lines 25 and 26, to delete “if falling on a weekday or, if not, the next Tuesday”.

    Amendment agreed to.

  • amendment No. 46:

    In page 33, paragraph 1(b), lines 27 and 28, to delete “if falling on a weekday or, if not, the next day”.

    Amendment agreed to.

  • amendment No. 47:

    In page 33, paragraph 1(c), lines 29 and 30, to delete “if falling on a weekday or, if not, the next day”.

    Amendment agreed to.

  • Second Schedule, as amended, agreed to.
• Select Committee Stage Section 21
  • amendment No. 28:

    In page 20, subsection (1), line 14, to delete paragraph (d) and substitute the following:

    “(d) an additional day’s pay:

    Provided that if the day on which the public holiday falls is a day on which the employee would, apart from this subsection, be entitled to a paid day off this subsection shall have effect as if paragraph (a) were omitted therefrom.”.

    Amendment agreed to.

  • amendment No. 29:

    In page 20, subsection (3), line 23, after “concerned” to insert “or, in a case to which the proviso to subsection (1) applies, to an additional day’s pay”.

    Amendment agreed to.

  • amendment No. 30:

    In page 20, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following subsection:

    “(6) For the avoidance of doubt, the reference in the proviso to subsection (I) to a day on which the employee is entitled to a paid day off includes a reference to any day on which he or she is not required to work, the pay to which he or she is entitled in respect of a week or other period being regarded, for this purpose, as receivable by him or her in respect of the day or days in that period on which he or she is not required to work as well as the day or days in that period on which he or she is required to work.”.

    Amendment agreed to.

  • Section 21, as amended, agreed to.
• Second Stage Eithne FitzGerald: Section 21 sets out the criteria which shall apply to public holiday entitlements. The qualifying period for part-time employees of at least 40 hours during the five weeks before the public holiday will be required for entitlement to a public holiday. Section 22 provides that the mechanism for calculating the rate of pay for a public holiday shall be set out by regulation. This section also provides the time off granted to an employee for holidays or public holidays shall be regarded as time worked for pay purposes. Section 23 provides that an employee, or his or her personal representative in the event of his or her death, shall be entitled to the payment of any holidays or public holidays compensation owing at the time of cessor of employment.
• Second Stage ctd Éamon Ó Cuív Something which is wrongly accepted as fact should be made a fact at this stage. Most workers think that Good Friday is a public holiday but it is only a bank holiday. It would be a step forward to make Good Friday a public holiday so that workers would not have to take it out of their annual leave or would not be under an obligation if it was given as a day ex gratia. Most people take that long weekend off and it is only reasonable to make the Friday before that holiday weekend a public holiday also.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1993/en/si/0091.html Add 5-M-1 from 1993

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1989/en/act/pub/0016/sched1.html repealed acts using "bank holiday" Bank Holidays Act, 1871. Holidays Extension Act, 1875. Bank Holiday (Ireland) Act, 1903. Public Holidays Act, 1924 . Substance in http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1989/en/act/pub/0016/sec0135.html#sec135 "Payments on public holidays not compellable." http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1989/en/act/pub/0016/sec0132.html "Amendment of Bills of Exchange Act, 1882" defines "Business days" "Non-business days" "Public holiday"

But two later SIs used "bank holiday" http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1999/en/si/0129.html (2) In this article “excluded day” means a day which is a Saturday, Sunday, Bank Holiday, or other day on which the offices of the local authority are not open to the public. http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1994/en/si/0359.html#zzsi359y1994a10 For the purposes of paragraph 2, a day which is a Saturday or Sunday or a bank holiday shall be disregarded http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/dail1989020800032#N87 The final provisions in this Bill are by way of up-dating miscellaneous Acts governing particular financial transactions. These are the Bankers' Books Evidence Act, 1879; the Bills of Exchange Act, 1882; the Money-lenders Acts, 1900 to 1933; the Trustee Acts, 1893 and 1958, and the Stock Transfer Act, 1963. The explanatory memorandum to the Bill explains the amendments which are being made. One notable provision, however, is contained in section 128 which empowers the Minister for Finance to direct the closure of banks and other financial institutions or exchanges where the protection of the currency or the national interest so requires. These are very much emergency powers. They are not new in that the Government have always had the power to declare bank holidays. Bank holidays, however, are also public holidays which are regulated by the relevant public holidays legislation. It has been decided to repeal the existing legislation on bank holidays, which exists in various Acts from 1871 to 1973 and, in so far as the traditional bank holidays are now superseded by the law on public holidays, to leave this aspect to the Public Holidays Act, 1973. The particular powers of suspending financial transactions by, for example, declaring a bank holiday are thus being re-created in an expanded from in this Bill.

http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/DebatesWebPack.nsf/takes/dail1982051800101

John O'Leary, 1982: Forest workers have received the Church holidays Ascension Thursday and Corpus Christi in lieu of Whit Monday and the August bank holiday Monday since 1955, an arrangement made at the request of their union at that time. There has been no request since to alter this arrangement.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1977/en/si/0193.html Add 10-M-L from 1977

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1974/en/si/0341.html Add 1-1 from 1975

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1973/en/si/0339.html 1-1-1974

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1973/en/act/pub/0025/sched1.html#sched1 12-25 12-26 3-17 5-M-1 8-M-1 E+1

1-6 8-15 11-1 12-8 E+40 E+60

http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/dail1971062300007#N64 In certain other respects the bank might have a legal obligation to its customers and it is relieved of that legal obligation in respect of that particular day where it is authorised to close on a Bank Holiday. However, during the bank dispute the banks were not relieved of that obligation at all nor did they seek to be relieved of it. They did not ask either in the recent dispute or in the 1966 dispute any permission from the Government nor did they get it. Their legal position in relation to their customers was not interfered with at all. The position there depended on the contract between the customer and the bank.

http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/dail1970060400013?opendocument The Government acceded to a request in this matter from the banks to facilitate them in dealing with a seasonal increase in accounting work. The appointment of the bank holiday had the effect of protecting the banks in any legal proceedings that might be taken against them arising out of their not being open for the conduct of business. : there have been provisions over the years whereby banks may not open in accordance with the law. There is no such provision about them staying closed : Sections 4 and 5 of the Bank Holidays Act, 1871 provided that special days could be appointed by proclamation as bank holidays or be substituted for particular bank holidays. These sections were replaced by similar provisions in 1924. These laid down that on certain days the banks cannot open.

http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/Debates%20Authoring/DebatesWebPack.nsf/takes/dail1966051700005 There is no legislation under which the banks are required to seek permission to close other than on extraordinary bank holidays. They close on ordinary bank holidays like August Monday in the ordinary way, but they usually seek permission to close on 1st January each year and the Order in that instance is made under the Public Holidays Act, 1924.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1963/en/si/0265.html Sub 1-6 for 1-1

http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/dail1962071200019?opendocument the appointment of any particular day to be a public holiday is a function of the Government under the Public Holidays Act, 1924

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1961/en/act/pub/0033/sec0008.html#sec8 12-25 12-26 3-17 8-M-1 E+1 E+50

1-1 8-15 11-1 12-8 E+40 E+60 http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/seanad1961080200006#N40 As far as the suggestion that Good Friday ought to be included as a public holiday for the purposes of this Bill is concerned, that was one of the amendments put down by the Labour Party in the Dáil. I pointed out to them that the public holidays as declared are the usual ones —Christmas Day, St. Stephen's Day, St. Patrick's Day and the bank holidays; that the declaration of a public holiday is a matter for the Government under the Public Holidays Act, 1924 and that, until such time as it is declared a public holiday, it is not the intention to include Good Friday for the purposes of this Bill. There is provision in the Bill whereby the Minister can by regulation declare a new public holiday so declared and so enacted by the Oireachtas to be a public holiday for the purpose of this Bill. The Labour Deputies accepted the situation and withdrew the amendment.

http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/dail1952121100022?opendocument I received an informal inquiry on behalf of the Irish Banks' Standing Committee as to what my attitude would be to a proposal if made to me by the committee that the banks be authorised to close on Saturday, 27th December, 1952. I indicated, in my reply, that I would not consider it to be in the public interest that the banks should remain closed on that day and that, accordingly, I would not be prepared to recommend the Government to make the necessary proclamation under the Public Holidays Act, 1924.

Proclamation of 1st January, 1953 as a bank holiday / Roinn Airgeadais (1952.)

MEMORANDUM FOR THE GOVERNMENT

Proclamation of 1st January, 1953 as a Bank Holiday.

1. The Irish Banks' Standing Committee has requested that Thursday, 1st January, 1953, be appointed a bank holiday to enable the banks to deal without interruption with the heavy work incidental to the end of the accounting year; it is not suggested that the day be a public holiday. Similar requests made by the banks in the past have always been granted.

2. The Minister for Finance accordingly recommends the Government, by proclamation under section 1 of the Public Holidays Act, 1921*, to apooint the 1st January, 1953? to be a bank holiday, a draft form of proclamation is attached.

PROCLAMATION

The Government, in exercise of the powers conferred on them by section 1 of the Public Holidays Act, 1924 (No. 56 of 1924), as adapted in consequence of the enactment of the Constitution, hereby appoint the 1st day of January, 1953 to be observed as a bank holiday throughout the State.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ResultsSITitle.html?q=Banks+%28Closing%29+Order&Simple_Search=SIs e.g. http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1954/en/si/0292.html Every bank in the State is hereby permitted to close on the following days, namely, the 28th and 29th days of December, 1954, and the 3rd day of January, 1955, and shall, in respect of a closing under this permission on any such day, enjoy the same immunities as if that day were a bank holiday throughout the State.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1946/en/act/pub/0022/sec0002.html#zza22y1946s2

  Expired c.1959

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1936/en/act/pub/0002/sec0007.html#sec7 12-25 12-26 3-17 8-M-1 E+1 E+50

Can subst any of following for 12-26; only subst * for 8-M-1 E+1 E+50 1-1 1-6 6-29* 8-15* 11-1 12-8 E+40* E+60* http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/Debates%20Authoring/DebatesWebPack.nsf/takes/dail1935103000038#N51 The Bill as originally drafted provided that workers in industrial undertakings should be allowed public holidays, and the public holidays named in the Bill are those six statutory holidays at present in force. It was, however, represented that in many parts of the country it was the practice of industrial undertakings to observe not the public statutory holidays but Church holidays, and it was suggested that the provisions in the Bill should be altered so as to enable Church holidays to be observed in lieu of statutory holidays, wherever it was considered advisable or desirable to do so. The effect of the amendments I am moving, numbers 4 and 18, is to provide that such substitution can take place, but without increasing the number of holidays. There are, I think, ten Church holidays in the year, and only six statutory holidays. The effect of amendment 18 is to provide that where an employer so chooses, and gives the requisite notice provided in the amendment, he can substitute for Easter Monday, or Whit Monday or the first Monday in August any of the Church holidays which are set out in sub-section (3) of the proposed new section.

dail/1929-03-08 Dáil Sittings on Holidays of Obligation "Report of the Committee on Procedure and Privileges ... recommends that the practice heretofore followed should not be departed from. The practice in regard to what are known by Catholics as holidays of obligation—Catholic Church holidays—has been not to interfere with the ordinary routine sittings of this House except in the case of St. Patrick's Day when it occurs in the middle of the week."

Public Holidays Act, 1924 (Act 56 of 1924) (Bill 51 of 1924)

The powers of proclaiming a Bank Holiday given by the 1871 and 1875 Acts would, it is submitted, now be properly exercisable by the Governor-General on the advice of the Executive Council. It has, however, apparently been considered the proper construction of Article 28 of the Constitution that the Executive Council alone is the proper body to proclaim a public holiday under that Article. Furthermore, as the law now stands, a public holiday declared under that Article would not be a Bank Holiday for the purposes of the 1871 and 1875 Acts. To cure this defect and to get rid of the anomaly of having two separate methods of declaring or proclaiming public holidays in the country, it has been thought advisable to introduce this Bill. Section 1 of the Bill simply empowers the Executive Council to appoint any day to be a Bank Holiday and provides that such day shall be a Bank Holiday both for the purposes of the 1871 and of the 1875 Acts. Section 2 empowers the Executive Council to change the dates of Bank Holidays in special cases, and Section 3 provides for the method of proclaiming such holidays.

Deputies will see, therefore, that the Bill causes no important change, and bears merely on a matter of administrative convenience. It is yet a matter that might prove of practical importance administratively, and the sole object of the Bill is to avoid unnecessary duplication and overlapping in the matter of proclaiming public holidays and Bank Holidays. I move the Second Reading.

1923 MacLysaght bill

• seanad/1923-03-14 First Reading (first ever bill initiated by Seanad)
• National Holidays bill 1923 : as introduced
• seanad/1923-04-19 Motion
  • Mr. MacLYSAGHT "That a Committee of the Seanad be appointed to endeavour to reach agreement as to the dates upon which Bank Holidays in Saorstát Eireann should fall, and that the further stages of the National Holidays Bill be postponed until the Committee has reported. The Committee to consist of Senators Jameson, Esmonde, Douglas, O'Farrell, Duffy, McKean, Bennett, and MacLysaght."
  • Since I raised this question some time ago it has received an extraordinary amount of criticism, some favourable. There have been complaints that I did not make all the Catholic holidays Bank holidays and some have complained to the opposite effect.
  • Mr. GUINNESS On a point of order are we on the Committee Stage or the Second Reading?
  • AN CATHAOIRLEACH We are on neither. It would neither be in order nor would it be prudent to go into the merits of the Bill.

Article 28 of the 1922 constitution made general election day was public holiday. Removed in 1927, so only applied to election of 27 August 1923.

[1903 (3 Edw. 7) c. 1] Bank Holiday (Ireland) Act, 1903 Add 3-17

Holidays Extension Act, 1875 [(38 & 39 Vict.) c. 13]

Bank Holidays Act, 1871 [(34 & 35 Vict.) c. 17]

1973-10-30 Holidays (Employees) Act, 1973

I have also taken this opportunity to formally substitute the first Monday in June as a public holiday instead of Whit Monday. This will obviate the need to make an annual order changing it, which was necessary under the present legislation.