New Public Holidays announced in Ireland

On 7 February 2022, government signed two new public holidays into law. This blog will provide you with more information about these public holidays and how to manage your employees’ leave entitlements.

Day of Recognition and Remembrance

For 2022 only, Friday the 18th of March has been declared a special public holiday. This declaration is in recognition of the efforts of the general public, volunteers and all workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, and in remembrance of people who lost their lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

St Brigid’s Day

Starting from 2023, the first Monday of every February has been declared a public holiday in celebration of St Brigid’s Day. Where the 1st of February falls on a Friday, St Brigid’s day will then be observed on that Friday instead. St Brigid’s marks the Celtic festival of Imbolc - the traditional start of the Celtic new year and the rebirth and the coming of spring. 

 Public Holidays and Payroll

Full time employees are entitled to paid leave on public holidays:

• Employees that do not work on a public holiday are entitled to a paid day off, which comes in addition to any other paid leave. 
• Employees that work on a public holiday are entitled to an additional day of annual leave or an additional day’s pay. 
• Alternatively, the employee can request a paid day off within a month of the public holiday.

Part time employees are only entitled to be compensated for a public holiday if they have worked at least 40 hours in the 5 weeks prior to the public holiday. 

• If the public holiday falls on a day that the employee normally works, the employee is entitled to a paid day off or an additional day’s pay if they work.
• If the public holiday falls on a day that the employee does not normally work, the employee is entitled to be paid 20% of their normal weekly pay.

You can find more information on how public holidays affect employee’s rights here.

As always, you do not need to take any action to cater for the new public holidays. SimplePay will incorporate these public holidays into our leave calendar timeously to ensure that the leave activity and entitlements of employees are accurately captured. 

You can find more information on how to manage leave on our help page here.

If you have any further questions about how SimplePay handles leave within payroll, please feel free to contact us at support@simplepay.ie. 

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Keep well and stay safe.

Team SimplePay