Knowing when Ireland’s public holidays fall is easy. Knowing what each date means for employee entitlement, working schedules, part-time staff, and businesses that remain open takes a little more planning.
There are 10 public holidays in Ireland. For employers expanding into the Republic of Ireland, understanding the dates and the rules behind them helps avoid scheduling surprises and ensures employees receive the benefit they are legally entitled to.
What You'll Learn
What Are The Public Holidays In Ireland?
A public holiday is a day recognized under Irish employment law that gives qualifying employees a statutory benefit. It does not necessarily mean every employee gets that specific day off work or that every business must close.
Ireland currently has 10 public holidays, including fixed dates such as Christmas Day and movable holidays such as Easter Monday.
List of public holidays in the Republic of Ireland
The 10 public holidays are:
New Year’s Day
St. Brigid’s Day
St. Patrick’s Day
Easter Monday
May public holiday
June public holiday
August public holiday
October public holiday
Christmas Day
St. Stephen’s Day
St. Brigid’s Day is observed on the first Monday in February, unless 1 February falls on a Friday, in which case Friday 1 February is the public holiday.
The May, June, August, and October holidays are generally observed on the first Monday of their respective months, except the October holiday, which falls on the last Monday in October. Easter Monday changes each year because its date depends on Easter Sunday.
Is Good Friday a public holiday in Ireland?
No. Good Friday is not an official public holiday in the Republic of Ireland.
Some employers may close on that day or provide paid time off through an employment contract or company policy. That does not turn Good Friday into a statutory public holiday or create the same legal entitlement automatically.
This distinction matters for international employers. A day that is widely observed, associated with a religious celebration, or treated as a company holiday is not necessarily one of Ireland’s statutory public holidays.
Ireland Public Holiday Dates For 2026, 2027 And 2028
Planning several years ahead is useful when you manage Irish employees alongside teams in other countries. Holiday dates can affect staffing, customer coverage, leave planning, and cross-border collaboration.
The table below provides the public holiday calendar for 2026, 2027, and 2028 in the Republic of Ireland.
| Public holiday | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Year’s Day | 1 January | 1 January | 1 January |
| St. Brigid’s Day | 2 February | 1 February | 1 February |
| St. Patrick’s Day | 17 March | 17 March | 17 March |
| Easter Monday | 6 April | 29 March | 17 April |
| May public holiday | 4 May | 3 May | 1 May |
| June public holiday | 1 June | 7 June | 5 June |
| August public holiday | 3 August | 2 August | 7 August |
| October public holiday | 26 October | 25 October | 30 October |
| Christmas Day | 25 December | 25 December | 25 December |
| St. Stephen’s Day | 26 December | 26 December | 26 December |
For employers, the important point is that the calendar date and an employee’s actual day off are not always the same thing. This becomes particularly relevant when Christmas Day, St. Stephen’s Day, New Year’s Day, or another public holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday.
Is there a public holiday in September 2026?
No. There is no statutory public holiday in September 2026 in the Republic of Ireland.
The August public holiday falls on 3 August 2026, and the next public holiday is the October holiday on 26 October 2026. Businesses should therefore avoid treating September as having an official public holiday unless they provide an additional company-specific day off.
Are the dates the same in Northern Ireland?
No. Employers should not apply the Republic of Ireland calendar to employees in Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom and follows a different bank holiday framework. Public holidays in Northern Ireland can therefore differ in both their dates and legal treatment.
For businesses operating across the island, this is a small distinction with a significant operational impact. Maintain separate holiday schedules for employees in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland rather than treating Ireland as one employment jurisdiction.
Is A Bank Holiday The Same As A Public Holiday In Ireland?
The terms bank holiday and public holiday are often used as though they mean exactly the same thing. For employment purposes in Ireland, however, the distinction matters.
Irish employment legislation provides statutory rights around public holidays. A day on which banks are closed, schools are closed, public transport operates on restricted schedules, or many businesses are closed does not automatically create a statutory employee entitlement.
Does a bank holiday mean employees automatically get the day off?
No. Even on an official public holiday, employees are not automatically entitled to have that particular calendar day off work.
Depending on the circumstances, an employer can provide the statutory benefit in another permitted form, such as a paid day off within one month, an additional day of annual leave, or an additional day’s pay.
This is especially relevant for businesses that cannot simply close on that day. Hospitality, retail, healthcare, customer support, tourism, and international operations may remain open and schedule employees as normal.
For global HR teams, the safer approach is to build policies around the statutory public holiday entitlement, rather than assuming every date commonly called a bank holiday must be handled like a company-wide closure.
Who Is Entitled To Public Holiday Benefits?
Public holiday entitlement depends partly on an employee’s working arrangement. Employers should therefore check the individual’s status and work history instead of applying one assumption across the workforce.
The rules are particularly important when a business employs a mix of full-time, part-time, shift, temporary, or newly hired employees.
Full-time employee entitlement
Full-time employees generally have an immediate entitlement to the statutory benefit for a public holiday.
That does not necessarily mean a paid day off on the holiday itself. It means the employee is entitled to receive one of the forms of benefit permitted under Irish employment law.
Part-time employee entitlement
For a part-time employee to qualify, they generally must have worked at least 40 hours during the previous five weeks before the public holiday.
Consider an employee working eight hours each week. Over the previous 5 weeks, they have worked 40 hours. Assuming those hours qualify, they meet the threshold for public holiday entitlement.
An employee who worked only 30 hours during the same period would generally not meet that particular eligibility test.
This is why employers should use actual working records rather than simply classifying everyone labelled “part-time” as either entitled or not entitled.
Temporary, casual and shift workers
Non-standard schedules do not automatically remove public holiday rights. A shift worker or temporary employee may still be entitled to benefit if the relevant statutory conditions are met.
The employee’s normal working pattern becomes particularly important when determining what benefit applies. Someone who normally works Monday will not always be treated the same way as an eligible employee who never works Mondays.
New employees
For full-time employees, public holiday entitlement generally applies immediately. Part-time employees need to satisfy the qualifying-hours requirement.
International employers should build this check into onboarding and HR administration. A new hire joining shortly before a public holiday should not be overlooked simply because they have only recently started working for the business.
What Public Holiday Entitlement Must An Employer Provide?
Being entitled to a public holiday does not always mean receiving the public holiday itself as a paid day away from work. Irish law gives employers several ways to provide the required benefit.
Under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, an eligible employee is entitled to one of four forms of public holiday benefit.
These are:
A paid day off on the public holiday.
A paid day off within one month of the public holiday.
An additional day of annual leave.
An additional day’s pay.
This flexibility matters for businesses with operations that need to continue on public holidays. The compliance question is not simply, “Did the business close?” It is, “Did every eligible employee receive the correct statutory benefit?”
Who decides which public holiday benefit applies?
The employer generally determines which of the statutory alternatives will be provided.
Employees can ask the employer, at least 21 days before the public holiday, which benefit will apply. If the employer does not respond at least 14 days before the holiday, the employee is entitled to a paid day off on the public holiday.
Clear communication avoids most of this friction. Employers managing distributed teams should make the chosen approach visible in their HR calendar or holiday policy rather than leaving employees to work it out before every holiday.
Can an employment contract provide a better entitlement?
Yes. Statutory public holiday entitlements establish a minimum rather than a maximum.
An employment contract, collective agreement, or company policy may provide a more favourable arrangement. An employer might, for example, close the business and provide the paid day off even where another statutory option could have been used.
For international companies, localizing employment policies matters here. A global holiday policy should not reduce the legal entitlement employees receive under Irish law.
What Happens When A Public Holiday Falls On A Weekend?
Weekend public holidays cause confusion because the date of the public holiday and the day an employee receives their benefit can be different. This frequently becomes relevant for fixed-date holidays such as Christmas Day, St. Stephen’s Day, and New Year’s Day.
When a public holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, there is no automatic legal entitlement to the next working day off work.
Do employees automatically get the following Monday off?
No. A public holiday falling on a weekend does not automatically move the statutory holiday to the following Monday.
The employee is still entitled to the appropriate public holiday benefit. Depending on the circumstances, that could be a paid day off within one month, an additional day of annual leave, an additional day’s pay, or another applicable statutory option.
An employer can choose to close on the following Monday as its way of managing the holiday, but employers should distinguish company practice from the underlying legal rule.
What if Saturday or Sunday is a normal working day?
For employees who normally work Saturday or Sunday, the weekend may simply be their normal working schedule.
If the public holiday falls on a day they are normally due to work, the employer needs to apply the public holiday rules based on that working pattern. A weekend shift worker should not be treated as though Saturday or Sunday is automatically a non-working day.
What if the employee normally works Monday to Friday?
A Monday-to-Friday employee may not normally work on the Saturday or Sunday on which a fixed-date public holiday falls.
That does not remove their entitlement. The employer must still provide the applicable statutory benefit rather than assuming the employee receives nothing because the business was already closed.
For global employers, this is a useful reminder that holiday compliance should follow local entitlement rules and actual employee schedules, not assumptions built into a global calendar. Standardize how your HR team tracks public holidays, but keep the Republic of Ireland rules local to the employees they affect.
What Happens If An Employee Is On Leave During A Public Holiday?
Being away from work does not automatically remove an employee’s public holiday entitlement. The outcome depends on the type of leave and, in some cases, how long the employee has been absent.
For employers, the practical step is to identify the employee’s leave category before deciding how the benefit for the public holiday should be recorded.
Sick leave
An employee can retain public holiday rights while absent due to illness, but the duration of the absence matters.
Under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, an employee may lose entitlement where they have been absent immediately before the public holiday for more than 26 consecutive weeks because of ordinary illness or injury, or more than 52 consecutive weeks because of an occupational injury.
That is different from the separate statutory sick leave scheme. Employers should avoid treating a sick day and a public holiday as interchangeable HR records simply because they fall together.
Maternity, adoptive, paternity and parent’s leave
Employees on protected family leave can continue to have public holiday rights.
For example, an employee on maternity leave remains entitled to credit for a public holiday occurring during both maternity leave and additional unpaid maternity leave. The benefit may be provided through an extra day’s pay, a paid day off within the permitted period, or an additional day of annual leave.
Employers should therefore keep public holidays visible when administering extended family leave. Removing the employee from the normal work schedule should not also remove statutory benefits that continue during the absence.
Carer’s leave
Carer’s leave has a more specific limit. Public holiday entitlement generally continues for the first 13 weeks of carer’s leave for a particular person receiving care.
This is another reason to record the type and duration of leave accurately. A blanket rule for every employee on extended leave can produce the wrong result.
For global HR teams, the simplest approach is to make public holiday checks part of leave administration. When an Irish public holiday falls during an absence, confirm the type of leave, its duration, and the employee’s applicable statutory or contractual entitlement before updating the HR record.
Public Holidays During Lay-Off, Short-Time Work Or Termination
Public holiday rights can still matter when an employee is temporarily out of work or approaching the end of employment. These situations are easy to miss because the employee may no longer appear on the normal roster.
The Workplace Relations Commission sets out specific rules for temporary lay-off and employees whose employment ends shortly before a public holiday.
Public holiday entitlement during temporary lay-off
An employee on temporary lay-off is entitled to the public holiday benefit when the holiday falls within the first 13 weeks of the lay-off.
For example, imagine an employee has been temporarily laid off for six weeks when the June holiday arrives on the first Monday in June. Because the public holiday falls within the first 13 weeks, the employer should still assess and provide the applicable benefit.
This rule is particularly relevant when a business reduces operations temporarily rather than ending employment.
What happens during short-time work?
Short-time work requires employers to look at the employee’s actual schedule and eligibility rather than assuming reduced hours eliminate public holiday rights.
If the employee remains employed and qualifies for the holiday, assess the benefit using the working pattern that applies to them. This is especially important where working days change from week to week.
Keep clear records of roster changes. They make it easier to determine whether a public holiday falls on a normal working day for that business and employee.
What if employment ends just before a public holiday?
Termination does not always end public holiday obligations immediately.
If an employee ceases employment during the week ending on the day before a public holiday, and they worked during the four weeks preceding that week, they are entitled to receive pay for the public holiday.
Consider an employee whose employment ends on Friday before a Monday public holiday. If the statutory conditions are satisfied, removing the employee from the system on Friday does not necessarily remove the employer’s obligation.
The Workplace Relations Commission also identifies failure to compensate for loss of public holiday entitlement on cessation of employment as a compliance issue under the Organisation of Working Time Act.
How Should Employers Plan For Ireland Public Holidays?
Good public holiday management starts before the holiday arrives. For international employers, that means combining Ireland-specific rules with a workforce calendar that HR, managers, and employees can actually use.
The goal is not to make every country follow the same holiday policy. It is to create consistent processes while preserving the local entitlements that apply to Irish employees.
Build public holidays into your workforce calendar
Add all 10 Ireland public holidays to the workforce calendar before the start of each year.
That calendar should show which locations remain open, which employees are scheduled to work, and where alternative benefits need to be arranged. Fixed dates such as Saint Patrick’s Day, Christmas Day, and St. Stephen’s Day should sit alongside movable dates such as Easter Monday and the first Monday in June.
Remember that not every widely observed event is statutory. A festival or special day may commemorate a cultural or religious event without creating a legal public holiday entitlement.
Plan coverage for businesses that remain open
A public holiday does not require every organization to shut down.
Hotels, restaurants, healthcare operations, customer support teams, shops, and other services may open as usual. Some businesses may remain closed, while others need full or reduced coverage.
Instead of deciding coverage at the last minute, identify which roles are operationally necessary and communicate schedules early. Then make sure employees who work receive the correct public holiday benefit.
Check work patterns instead of assuming a Monday-to-Friday week
Several Ireland public holidays fall on a Monday, but not everyone works a standard weekday schedule.
Shift workers, part-time employees, weekend staff, and employees on changing rosters may require different treatment. Your HR process should therefore check the employee’s normal work pattern rather than relying only on the company calendar.
This becomes even more important across international teams. An Irish employee may be working with colleagues in a country where the same day is an ordinary working day.
Keep Ireland-specific rules inside your global HR process
A centralized HR model can make international expansion easier, but centralization should not mean treating every country identically.
Maintain a Republic of Ireland holiday calendar, clear entitlement rules, documented employee schedules, and records of how each applicable benefit was provided. The WRC can inspect compliance with public holiday entitlements and the correct rate of public holiday pay.
This approach gives global HR teams one operating framework without losing the local detail that keeps employment compliant.
What Should Employers Remember About Public Holidays In Ireland?
Public holidays look like a calendar issue, but for employers they are really an employment-entitlement and workforce-planning issue. Getting them right means knowing who qualifies, what benefit applies, and how different work or leave arrangements affect the outcome.
Some of the most important points to remember include:
Ireland has 10 statutory public holidays, and employers should maintain an up-to-date calendar for Irish employees.
A public holiday does not always mean the employee must receive that specific day off work.
Part-time employees generally qualify after working at least 40 hours in the previous five weeks.
Employees can retain public holiday rights during certain types of statutory leave and during the first 13 weeks of temporary lay-off.
Ending employment immediately before a public holiday does not necessarily eliminate the employee’s entitlement.
Employers with shift, weekend, or cross-border teams should base decisions on actual working patterns rather than a standard Monday-to-Friday assumption.
International businesses should standardize how holidays are managed globally while keeping Irish public holiday rules locally compliant.
International expansion works better when employment infrastructure follows the business strategy—not the other way around. Empleyo helps companies hire through Employer of Record services, manage global payroll and support international workforce expansion without building unnecessary complexity into every new market.
If Ireland is your next hiring destination—or one of several countries on your expansion roadmap—contact Empleyo to explore the right EOR and global payroll setup for your workforce.
