Bonus Bank Holiday should be introduced to coincide with Thanksgiving, TD says

A Fine Gael TD has suggested that a bonus Bank Holiday should be introduced to coincide with Thanksgiving in the US.

Ciaran Cannon said that such an idea could be used both to thank our frontline workers and to strengthen ties between Ireland and the United States, creating tourism opportunities.

This ties in with a new study by Fáilte Ireland which estimates that a bonus Bank Holiday could generate up to €20million in tourism revenue.

However, a number of other TDs are reported to support an introduction of a banker in September - as they claim would be more beneficial to the economy.

The new Bank Holiday is likely to coincide with what is most beneficial to the economy, tourism and hospitality according to Government TDs (Photo:Gareth Chaney/Collins)

But some social media users have slammed claims that the banker will act as a thanks frontline workers, with one sarcastic remark saying: “Guess who has to work on a bank holiday… oh yes, front line workers!”

While others are voicing their opinion that the bonus Bank Holiday should be earlier in the year.

Twitter users chimed in with journalist Dylan O’Connell’s idea for the banker to be held on St. Brigid’s day. “January 1st to St. Patrick’s day is a slog,” he said.

“Give us a January bank holiday mid month, as it is the worst… month of the year. We all deserve it,” said one user.

Ireland currently has nine Bank Holidays a year, a bonus one would put us into the double digits.

Many EU countries including France, Spain and Italy have 12 or more.