How does Ireland fare on public holidays?

Irish workers get just nine public holidays a year, putting us next to bottom of the world public-holiday league. Only Romania, and our hard-working neighbours in England, Wales and Scotland, with eight days off a year, have less.

Our European colleagues are far more generous to their workers with, for example, Austrian, Danish, German and Dutch workers getting 12 public holidays a year.

May is the most popular month for public holidays across the continent, when Dutch workers take a week of public holidays (five days), and Germany and Austria four days each.

So are we going to get any more holidays?

Though minister for labour affairs Tony Killeen told Labour's Ruairi Quinn in the Dail last week that no increase in public holidays was being contemplated "at the moment", it is on the unions' agenda.

Last week, a motion at the Public Service Executive Union's annual conference sought an extra five public holidays a year, phased in over a three-year period. Unrealistic as this may be, it puts extra public holidays high up the unions' shopping list when the government, employers and unions sit down in the autumn to agree the next phase of the national pay deal, Towards 2016.

Two years ago, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions pushed for extra public holidays as part of the current national agreement. But these national pay talks got seriously bogged down over the issue of worker protection, and the demand for extra holidays got lost in the cut and thrust of negotiations.

Have new holidays been introduced before?

Yes. The last public holiday to be added to the Irish calendar was the next one up, the May bank holiday, which this year falls next Monday, 7 May. This was agreed in 1994 as part of the Programme for Competitiveness and Work . . . the national agreement of the time.

But while 1 May had been a public holiday throughout Europe for some time previously, the unions' insistence that it be called 'May Day' and be given to celebrate workers almost scuppered the deal. The employers objected to having the extra day off regarded as a workers' day off and did not like the socialist connection.

The compromise was to call it the May bank holiday and have it on the first Monday in May. But there has been nothing since.

What new public holidays are we likely to get?

Given the preference for having holidays clustered around good weather, there is a very obvious vacancy for a public holiday in July. Currently we have a day off in March (St Patrick's Day), April (Easter) May, June and August. In 2005, when Ictu was pushing for extra public holidays, the Galway Council of Trade Unions proposed that 12 July be a public holiday "in recognition of the other tradition on the island of Ireland and in furtherance of the peace process". But this largesse proved to be a bridge too far for some, and Ictu persuaded the Galway unions to drop their controversial proposal.

If July comes up again as a possibility, it will most likely be called the July bank holiday and be given on the first Monday in the month with no reference to the 'Twelfth'.

Unlike most of our European neighbours, Good Friday is not a public holiday here, though many businesses do give it off.

The unions have made repeated attempts to get Good Friday declared a public holiday but, to date, to no avail.

What about church holidays?

As the Catholic church's influence has waned, church holidays have virtually disappeared from the workplace but still hang on in some rural-based businesses. Originally given so workers could attend mass, the church is so flexible with mass times today that workers can't really argue they have been denied the right to practise.

Just last week, the Labour Court ruled against a claim by workers at the Lisavaird co-op in Cork to retain their right to four church holidays in the year . . . 6 January (Epiphany), 15 August (Assumption), 1 November (All Souls), and 8 December (Immaculate Conception). Mandate, the union involved in the claim, argued strongly that the church holidays were the workers' only guaranteed days off and "no financial compensation could compensate for the loss of these church holidays".

The co-op countered that church holidays were now working days throughout the business and agricultural world, and that it had to be open for business on those days in order to compete. The court agreed with the co-op but ordered that the existing staff be given an extra four days' annual leave in the year to compensate for the loss of the church holidays.

But while church holidays fade away, public servants have managed to retain their right to two 'privilege' days in the year . . . at Christmas and Easter. They were originally given to allow public servants enough time to travel back to work from the country after the holidays, and while travel is a little easier these days, the privilege days remain.

So what about Sundays?

Like church holidays, the Celtic Tiger has also seen the end of Sunday as a day of rest for many, particularly shop workers. In 2003, Clerys department store in Dublin was the last major retailer to concede on Sunday opening. But most shop workers are paid a premium of up to double time for working Sundays.

What's the argument against more public holidays?

Cost. In crude terms, an extra day off a year would cost the country's employers around 350m. While many businesses will be able to absorb an extra day off without incurring much cost, a hidden cost for a business which operates seven days a week is that it would have to pay its staff double time for working on the new public holiday.

There is also the inconvenience of being closed down while businesses across the water are open and ready to do business.

But even economic super powers like Japan have 16 public holidays while the US has more than Ireland with 10.

Doubtless this will be the core of the argument when the unions sit down with employers and government this autumn and try to unshackle workers from their desks for at least one more day.