WELSH politicians are “disappointed” after the UK Government refused a request to make Wales’s national day a bank holiday.
St David’s Day or Dydd Gwyl Dewi, which is celebrated on March 1, does not have official national holiday status despite having strong support in Wales.
Gwynedd Council wrote to the UK Government in October requesting for the date to be assigned, noting that Scotland and Northern Ireland are both able to designate their own national holidays while Wales cannot.
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Responding to the council, small business minister Paul Scully said: “While we appreciate that the people of Wales want to celebrate their patron saint, more people work across the English/Welsh border than across the English/Scottish Border.
“This closer degree of integration could cause greater business disruption. If we had separate bank holidays in England and Wales, the impact on both employees and businesses is difficult to predict.”
However, Scully added that the UK Government is committed to “working together with all the devolved administrations to ensure that the UK’s institutions are working collectively as one United Kingdom”.
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Plaid Cymru councillor Nia Jeffreys from Gwynedd Council said she was “very disappointed” by the answer from the minister.
“St David’s day is an important date in our calendar and our hearts in Wales and we should be able to celebrate it as a national holiday,” she said.
“The response shows a lack of understanding of devolution and of Wales, but sadly this is what we have come to expect from the Boris Johnson’s UK Government.”
A spokesperson for the Welsh Government said: “We have asked the UK Government time and time again to devolve the powers to designate a St David’s Day Bank Holiday to the Senedd, and its very disappointing that these requests continue to be refused.”
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