Rejected petition Make St Patrick's Day a public holiday in N Ireland

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

It’s about something that the UK Government or Parliament is not directly responsible for.

The petition cannot be accepted because St Patrick's Day is already a bank holiday in Northern Ireland and has been one since 1903. There is no such thing in law as as a 'public holiday'. Holidays are either bank holidays or holidays that are taken by custom and practice such as Christmas day and Good Friday. Bank holidays do not confer automatic leave entitlement - that is a matter between employers and employees and individual employment contracts. It would be for the Northern Ireland Assembly to legislate for how St Patrick's day is observed and if they wished businesses and schools etc to remain open or closed.

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.

• Date submitted 20 March 2012
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