The decision to grant an extra Bank Holiday should be based on “intelligent justifiable reasons” and not just because we’ve come through a pandemic, a business leader has said.
Reports suggest the Government is planning an extra break for next year in the upcoming Budget.
People Before Profit have called for three more public holidays in 2022 as a reward for extra workloads taken on in the past 18 months and to catch up with other EU countries who offer more entitlements.
But Neil McDonnell, head of the Irish SME association ISME, warned we entered the pandemic with large national debt which has
now increased and claimed there seems to be a “clamour to spend even more money”.
He told RTE: “In European terms we’re probably one to two days behind the average. Ireland has nine.
“Let us do it for intelligent justifiable reasons, not because we’ve just come through a pandemic.”
The ISME boss said that between 25,000 and 50,000 redundancies are coming down the track once employment supports such as the PUP are withdrawn in the coming months.
Mr McDonnell added there is “a whiff of 2006” in the suggestion that an additional Bank Holiday is needed, with the message appearing to say “let’s all keep spending money”.
He said: “We came into this pandemic with a national debt of €43,000 for every man, woman and child in the country.
“A year-and-a-half into the pandemic we now owe €50,000 a head and there seems to be a clamour to spend even more money.
“We would love to hear someone who had the wit or common sense to shout stop.”
