Annual Leave Entitlement Ireland: What the Law Actually Gives You

JobChamp Guide · Updated July 17, 2026

Your annual leave entitlement in Ireland is set by the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997: a statutory minimum of 4 working weeks a year for most employees, worked out using one of three calculation methods depending on your hours. On top of that, you get 10 public holidays, which are a separate entitlement with their own rules. This guide sets out the numbers, the methods, and what happens to your leave if you are sick or leaving a job.

The statutory minimum: 4 working weeks

Under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, most employees in Ireland are entitled to a minimum of 4 working weeks of paid annual leave per leave year. A "working week" is simply the number of days you normally work in a week, so if you work 3 days a week, your 4 weeks of leave are 12 days, not 20. This statutory minimum applies to full-time, part-time, temporary and casual employees alike, and you start accruing leave from your very first day in the job, not after a qualifying period.

Your contract or a collective agreement can grant more than the statutory minimum, and many do, but it cannot legally give you less. If you have worked for the same employer for at least 8 months, you are also entitled to take an unbroken block of 2 weeks off in a row, rather than having your leave split into single days at your employer's convenience.

How your leave is actually calculated: three methods

Not everyone works a fixed 5-day week, so Section 19 of the Act sets out three separate ways to calculate your entitlement. Where more than one method could apply to you, the law says you get whichever result is greater, not whichever is more convenient for your employer.

Which method actually applies to me?

If you work full-time on a regular schedule, method 1 will almost always give you the full 4 weeks. If your hours vary week to week, such as with casual, seasonal, or zero-hours-adjacent contracts, method 3, the 8% rule, is usually the one your employer should apply, since it scales directly with hours actually worked.

Public holidays: a separate entitlement from annual leave

Ireland has 10 public holidays a year, and they are legally distinct from your 4 weeks of annual leave. You do not use up annual leave days to get a public holiday off; it is its own entitlement under the same Act.

Full-time employees are covered from day one. If you are part-time or on a casual contract, you qualify for a given public holiday once you have worked at least 40 hours in the 5 weeks immediately before it, even if that particular day is not one you would normally work. Your employer then has to give you one of four things, and it is their choice which:

• A paid day off on the public holiday itself
• A paid day off within a month of that date
• An additional day added to your annual leave
• An extra day's pay

If a public holiday falls on a day you do not normally work at all, such as Christmas Day landing on a Saturday for someone who never works Saturdays, you are still entitled to one-fifth of your normal weekly pay for that day, once you meet the 40-hour qualifying rule.

Annual leave and sick leave: what happens if you are out sick

If you are on certified sick leave, your annual leave does not stop building up. Since Section 86 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 took effect on 1 August 2015, days you are certified as sick still count toward your annual leave accrual, the same as if you had been at work.

The more important protection is what happens when illness stops you from actually taking leave you had already earned. Under the normal rules, unused leave that is not carried forward by agreement would simply lapse at the end of the leave year or the usual carry-over window. But if you could not take your leave because you were sick, that leave is protected: you can carry it forward for up to 15 months after the end of the leave year in which it was earned, rather than losing it at year-end. If your employment ends before you have used that protected leave, it must be paid out, provided you leave within that same 15-month window.

Carrying leave into the next year

Outside the illness protection above, Irish law does not give you an automatic right to carry unused annual leave into the next leave year. The general expectation under the Act is that you take your statutory leave within the year it accrues. In practice, many employers allow a carry-over of around 6 months, but this is company policy rather than a statutory entitlement, so check your contract or staff handbook.

Getting paid for leave when you leave a job

Normally, your employer cannot simply pay you cash instead of letting you take your statutory annual leave; the whole point of the entitlement is that you actually get time off. The one exception is when your employment ends. At that point, any outstanding statutory annual leave you have accrued but not taken must be paid out as part of your final pay, calculated at your normal rate.

This includes leave protected by the illness carry-over rule described above: if you are still within the 15-month window when you leave, that leave must be paid out too, not written off. If you are negotiating your exit, whether through resignation, redundancy, or a dispute over how you were let go, it is worth adding up your outstanding leave balance yourself and checking it against your final payslip, since this figure is sometimes understated. If you believe you were dismissed unfairly and leave pay is part of a wider dispute, our guide to unfair dismissal in Ireland covers how to raise a complaint with the Workplace Relations Commission.

How holiday pay is worked out

When you take annual leave, you must be paid your normal weekly rate, in advance, under Section 20 of the Act. That is straightforward if your pay is fixed. If your pay varies from week to week, for example because of overtime, commission, or shift premiums, your holiday pay is instead based on the average of your earnings over the 13 weeks immediately before you take the leave.

Common mistakes to avoid

One common error is treating public holidays and annual leave as the same pot, then feeling short-changed when the 10 public holidays are not added on top of the 4 weeks. They are separate entitlements, and both should appear clearly in your contract or leave policy.

Another frequent mistake is part-time and casual staff assuming they get nothing for public holidays because they "don't usually work that day." The 40-hours-in-5-weeks rule can still qualify you, so check your payslips rather than assume. Employees on long-term sick leave also sometimes assume their leave was lost at year-end. Usually it was not, thanks to the 15-month carry-over rule, so check that illness periods were credited before signing off on a final leave balance.

Frequently asked questions

This article is general information and does not replace legal advice for your specific situation. For disputes about your leave entitlement, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), Citizens Information, your trade union, or an employment solicitor can help.