People work hard and many leave their homes between 5.30am and 7pm for work. Yet Ireland falls below other EU countries for public holidays.
People Before Profit introduced a bill to give workers three more public holidays but it was voted down by this government. Under pressure, they gave one extra day bringing us up to ten.
But in a country like Germany, there are thirteen public holidays – three more than Ireland.
Yesterday in the Dáil, the Fine Gael Minister, Simon Coveney, conceded that an extra three days of public holidays could cost as low as 0.24% of Gross National Income or maybe slightly higher at around 1%.
There is a huge budget surplus – so what are we waiting for?
We need an extra 3 days of public holidays.
