Public holidays in Irish hospitality: dates, entitlements and what to pay

For most businesses a public holiday is a day off. For a pub, hotel or restaurant it's often one of the busiest days of the year, which is why the rules matter more to you than to almost anyone. Irish law doesn't require double time or a day off for everyone. It gives each eligible employee one benefit per public holiday, and the employer chooses which. This guide covers the dates, who qualifies, the four options, what to pay and how to roster it, from section 21 of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, S.I. No. 475/1997, the WRC and Citizens Information.

To check one person quickly, use our public holiday entitlement checker.

The 10 public holidays, with 2026 and 2027 dates

Good Friday is not a public holiday. The WRC calls it a normal working day. Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve aren't public holidays either.

Who qualifies

• Full-time staff qualify immediately, from their first week.
• Part-time and casual staff qualify once they've worked at least 40 hours for you in the 5 weeks ending on the day before the public holiday (s.21(4)). Citizens Information confirms annual leave counts as time worked towards the 40 hours.

Example. Two weeks before the June public holiday, you take on a student for 10 hours a week. By the Monday she's worked about 20 hours: no entitlement this time. A weekend bartender doing 12 hours a week for the past 5 weeks has 60 hours: entitled.

Some absences break entitlement. Citizens Information lists, for example, being off sick for more than 26 weeks immediately before the holiday (52 weeks for an occupational accident), or an authorised absence of more than 13 weeks such as lay-off. Staff on maternity, paternity, adoptive, parent's or parental leave keep their entitlement.

The four options (the employer chooses)

For each public holiday, an eligible employee is entitled to whichever of these the employer decides:

1. A paid day off on the day.
2. A paid day off within a month of the day.
3. An extra day of annual leave.
4. An extra day's pay.

The employee can ask, at least 21 days before the holiday, which option you'll give. If you haven't told them at least 14 days before, they're entitled to a paid day off on the public holiday itself (s.21(2) and (3)). For the August public holiday on 2 August 2027, a request made on 12 July needs an answer by 19 July.

What to pay in the common hospitality situations

The WRC sets out how the options play out in practice:

How much is a day's pay?

S.I. No. 475/1997 sets the rate:

• Staff who work or would normally work that day: for fixed pay, the pay for the normal daily hours last worked before the holiday; for pay that varies, the average daily pay over the 13 weeks before the holiday. Overtime is left out either way.
• Staff who don't normally work that day: one-fifth of the normal weekly pay (fixed pay) or one-fifth of the average weekly pay over 13 weeks (variable pay), excluding overtime. It can't be more than they'd get under the first rule.

Example 1. A chef on a fixed €760 for five 8-hour days works Easter Monday. She's paid €152 for working the day, plus, if you choose the extra day's pay, another €152 for the public holiday. Total for the day: €304.

Example 2. A part-time lounge server works Thursday to Saturday and averaged €330 a week over the last 13 weeks. The October public holiday is a Monday, which she doesn't work. She's worked well over 40 hours in the previous 5 weeks, so she gets one-fifth of €330: €66.

Example 3. A Friday-only casual has worked 7 hours a week for 5 weeks: 35 hours. Under 40, so no public holiday benefit this time.

Sick leave, lay-off and family leave over a public holiday

Citizens Information sets out how other absences interact with public holidays:

• A full-timer on sick leave on a public holiday is still entitled to the benefit. The employer can instead treat them as not on sick leave that day and pay them as normal for the public holiday, in which case it doesn't count as a sick day.
• A part-timer on sick leave gets the benefit if they've worked 40 hours in the previous 5 weeks.
• Long absences break the link. No benefit if, immediately before the holiday, they've been off sick for more than 26 weeks (52 weeks after an occupational accident), absent for more than 13 weeks with your authorisation (for example on lay-off), or on strike.
• Maternity, paternity, adoptive, parent's, parental and domestic violence leave don't affect the entitlement: staff on those leaves still get public holiday benefit.

For a seasonal hotel that lays staff off over the winter, the 13-week point matters: public holidays in the first 13 weeks of lay-off still carry a benefit.

Leaving just before a public holiday

If someone's employment ends in the week ending on the day before a public holiday, and they worked for you in the 4 weeks before that week, they're entitled to an extra day's pay for the holiday (s.23(2)). This catches out venues that let seasonal staff go just before the August or October weekend.

Rostering public holidays

• Decide your default option. For staff who work the day, an extra day's pay is often easier than a day off within a month, which can be hard to roster in a busy month. Write the default into contracts.
• Answer requests in time. Put the 21-day and 14-day deadlines for each holiday in your diary.
• Track the 40 hours. Before each holiday, check which part-timers have hit 40 hours in the 5 weeks.
• Mark the day on the roster. So everyone knows it's a public holiday, and who is working it.
• Keep the record. The WRC lists holiday and public holiday entitlements received by each employee among the statutory records. Note who got which benefit.

If a public holiday lands on a Sunday, as St Stephen's Day does in 2027, think about Sunday premium too. The Christmas run gets its own guide: the Christmas roster.

Where ShiftComplete helps

ShiftComplete lets you add a day note to a public holiday on the roster, record holidays so you don't roster someone who's off, and publish the week to every phone. With time tracking on, staff clock in and out and you can download hours with a total per person, which makes the 40-hour check for part-timers quick. It doesn't decide or pay the benefit for you; it keeps the hours and roster records you'll want when someone asks. €1.99 per active staff member per month, free for 60 days, no card, no contract.