Extra Holiday

Cllr Keith Martin says Westport has a lot to gain from proposals by Labour Party Spokesperson on Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ruairi Quinn TD for an extra Public Holiday.

According to the Labour Party Deputy, Ireland is among the lowest ranking EU countries in terms of days off per year, despite working above average weekly hours. While an average Swedish worker gets 42 days off a year, an Irish employee has only 29 and Ireland only has 9 Public Holidays a year compared with the EU average of 11.

Labour’s Cllr Martin says “as nice as it would be to have an extra holiday from a personal point of view it would be extremely beneficial to Westport, as a tourist town, to have an extra Public Holiday. Westport does very well during each holiday as visitors come to the town for the long weekend. By having another holiday, preferably off season, we would be creating extra income and stretching that bit more out of our tourism potential.