Back at your desk today?

Once you’ve eaten the least popular Quality Street and polished off the Chocolate Kimberleys, now is the time to book your holidays for the year ahead.

As the country returns to work after more than a week of festive fun, annual leave calendars are being closely perused and planned to make the most of the next days off.

This year, the prime date to nab is April 14th, 2020.

Why? Well, it’s all about getting that long stretch of time away from your desk while using up the least amount of official days in your holiday allocation.

Here’s how it works: Apply for holidays from Tuesday, April 14th until Friday, April 17th and you will enjoy a whopping nine days holidays for the price of four, thanks to Easter Monday (April 13th) and Good Friday (April 10th – some companies still close on this religious holiday).

The best bit? With just four days holidays used for an extended break, you can use the rest of your official days off to lengthen the May, June and August bank holidays in a similar fashion.

Here’s a handy list of all the upcoming holidays in Ireland:

• March 17th: St Patrick’s Day
• April 10th: Good Friday
• April 13th: Easter Monday
• May 4th: May Day
• June 1st: June Bank Holiday
• August 3rd: August Bank Holiday
• October 26th: October Bank Holiday
• December 25th: Christmas Day
• December 26th: St Stephen’s Day

Now all that’s left to do is check out flights and hotel deals (that’s the afternoon sorted).