Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh
Question:467. Deputy Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment the estimated cost of the most recent bank holiday to the Irish economy. [9652/26]
View answerTuesday, 10 February 2026
Questions (467)
Written answers
An assessment of the yearly cost of a new public holiday was conducted by the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment in conjunction with the Department of Social Protection as part of a broader report on the ‘Cumulative Impact of Changes to Working Conditions’ published in 2024 (no further analysis has been carried out on this topic). As there is limited historical information on the impact of an extra public holiday within an Irish context, data from other jurisdictions was also studied to guide any additional estimates within an Irish context.
The report estimates that the cost of an additional public holiday will be 0.09% of national income. It should be noted that an additional public holiday would not have a uniform impact across all sectors of the economy. Manufacturing would likely suffer a decline in output due to tasks being delayed, while agriculture would be less affected due to the sectors reliance on natural processes. Some sectors such as retail and hospitality would likely see an increase in economic activity (although these firms may incur higher payroll costs due to double time or time in lieu owed to employees).
Utilising sectoral elasticities applied to Gross Value Added the report estimates total cost of €355m to the Irish economy. This corresponds to a decline of 0.09% in GDP (or 0.13% on a GNI* basis). This is indicative of the fact that the Irish economy is highly dependent on service and high value manufacturing activities. However, it should also be noted that this could be partially mitigated by an increase in consumption within the retail and hospitality sectors. The analysis also points to the wider benefits that arise from a public holiday, which are more difficult to estimate. These benefits include improved societal well-being, and improvements to worker productivity on their return from time off, which can be expected to have an offsetting effect on costs.