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Should we have fewer Bank Holidays?

No matter what form it takes, Brexit will undoubtedly influence the European Economy. On today’...

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15.03 1 Apr 2019


Should we have fewer Bank Holidays?


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15.03 1 Apr 2019


No matter what form it takes, Brexit will undoubtedly influence the European Economy.

On today’s show, Sean Moncrieff spoke with Helga Schnellhardt, who is a Member of the European Parliament for Saxony-Anhalt for Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands.

She is part of a think tank, who have just come back from the Global forum of productiveness,  openness, global value chains, and productivity-enhancing policies.

One of the “blue sky thoughts” the group had was to reduce the number of Bank Holidays in European member states, in a bid to increase productivity and save money.

Research suggests that each Bank Holiday taken, costs 0.16% to the GDP of a country, and taking three less each year would mean a saving of millions, if not billions of euro.

Helga Schnellhardt suggested that one of the national days off that Ireland could remove could be St. Patrick’s Day.  Not to take away from the nation’s celebrations, she said that workers could enjoy a parade at their lunch break and then go back to work.


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