The Government has no plans to increase the number of public holidays, the Minister of State for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr Frank Fahey, told the Dáil.
He said that the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 provided for the nine public holidays a year.
Mr Brendan Howlin (Labour, Wexford) said that Ireland was among the EU member-states with the lowest number of days' leave, while countries which were successful economically, such as Austria and Finland, had considerably more holidays.
"Has he considered the impact of our paucity of paid public holidays in the context of the initiative that he and the Tánaiste have taken in balancing work and family life?" When Mr Fahey suggested that there had not been any great demand for an increase in the number of holidays, Mr Howlin said that if he was the Minister of State he would put it to a vote and the level of demand would become apparent.
Mr Fahey said that he and the Tánaiste had endeavoured to continue to support the further development of all aspects of providing a balance between family life and work.
"There are nine public holidays. I suggest that increasing that number would be better dealt with in the social partnership discussions than it would be by a minister."
Mr Howlin said that a former minister, Mr Ruairí Quinn, had inaugurated the May Day holiday.
"There are new and evolving pressures on family life in this country and in order to achieve the objective of the balancing work and family life initiative, which is being pushed hard by the Department, the Minister of State should open his mind to change in this area," he said.
