Annual Leave Rights in Ireland: Rules Explained

Annual leave in Ireland is paid time off that every employee earns from the day they start work. It is not a bonus. It is your normal pay, paid for weeks when you are not at work. The floor is at least four working weeks of paid annual leave per leave year.

To work out your own leave in days and in money, use the Ireland holiday pay tool, which runs all three statutory methods side by side and takes the best result.

What annual leave means

Annual leave is the time off. Holiday pay is the money for that time off. First, leave is worked out as time, in weeks and days. Only then is it turned into money, using your normal weekly rate. Public holidays are a third, separate thing. The ten public holidays in Ireland sit outside your four weeks of annual leave, and they are not taken from it. If a public holiday falls during your annual leave, that day counts as a public holiday, not as annual leave.

The rules come from section 19 of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 for annual leave, and sections 21 to 22 for public holidays. Contracts can give more than the legal minimum, but they cannot go below it. This guide covers the Republic of Ireland only. Northern Ireland follows separate UK rules. The leave year normally runs from 1 April to 31 March. A working week means the number of days you usually work. So four weeks for a five-day worker is 20 days, and four weeks for a three-day worker is 12 days.

The three methods that decide your leave

Your employer works out your annual leave with three methods, and you get whichever method gives you the most, up to four working weeks. No method can give more than four working weeks of statutory leave.

Method A, the 1,365-hour rule: four working weeks in a leave year in which you worked at least 1,365 hours. It does not apply in a leave year in which you changed employment.
Method B, the 117-hour month rule: one third of a working week for each month in which you worked at least 117 hours. Twelve such months give four weeks.
Method C, the 8% rule: 8% of the hours you worked in the leave year, capped at four working weeks. Divide by your normal weekly hours to turn hours into weeks.

Winning weeks times normal weekly pay gives the holiday pay value. Holiday pay must be paid in advance of the leave, not after you return. If your pay varies, your holiday pay is the average of your pay over the 13 weeks before you take the leave. After eight months in a leave year you are entitled to an unbroken period of two weeks of annual leave, which may include public holidays.

A worked example and bank holidays

Take a full-time worker who worked 1,800 hours, had 12 months with at least 117 hours, works five days a week at eight hours a day, and earns 650 euro a week. Method A gives four weeks, because 1,800 is more than 1,365, which is 20 days. Method B gives 12 divided by 3, which is four weeks, also 20 days. Method C gives 8% times 1,800, which is 144 hours, and the normal week is 40 hours, so 144 divided by 40 is 3.6 weeks, or 18 days. The best method is four weeks, 20 days, and the value is four times 650 euro, which is 2,600 euro. Part-time workers use the same three methods, pro rata to their working week. A tool that used only the 8% method would underpay anyone for whom method B gives more.

There are ten public holidays each year: New Year's Day on 1 January, St Brigid's Day on the first Monday in February, St Patrick's Day on 17 March, Easter Monday, the first Monday in May, the first Monday in June, the first Monday in August, the last Monday in October, Christmas Day on 25 December, and St Stephen's Day on 26 December. Christmas Eve is not a public holiday, and neither is Good Friday. Full-time employees qualify for public holiday benefit from the start. Part-time employees qualify if they worked at least 40 hours in total during the five weeks ending on the day before the public holiday. For each holiday, your employer chooses one of four options: a paid day off on the day, a paid day off within a month, an extra day of annual leave, or an extra day's pay. If the holiday falls on a day you do not normally work, you get one fifth of your normal weekly wage. If your employer does not nominate an option at least 21 days before the holiday, you get a paid day off on the day itself. There is no statutory right to double pay for working a public holiday.

Other leave, carryover and leaving a job

Annual leave should be taken in the leave year it was earned, or with your employer's consent within the first six months of the next leave year. If illness stopped you taking it, you can carry it over for up to 15 months after the end of the leave year. Payment instead of the minimum statutory leave is not allowed, except when your employment ends. When you leave a job, your employer must pay you for all accrued but untaken annual leave in your final pay. If you believe leave has been underpaid, the route is a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). Ireland has no rolled-up system: an employer cannot add a percentage to your hourly rate instead of giving you the leave itself.

Run your figures through the Ireland holiday pay tool and compare each method with your payslip. See all guides for the country on the Ireland page, and browse more guides on the Calcotia blog.