Maternity leave and Holiday pay.

Hello,
My wife has recently decided to become a full time mum and give up her job as we have two children and it doesn't really pay to put the two of them in Child care.
She took her standard maternity leave plus her four months unpaid. My question is her employer obligated to pay her for her holidays during this period ? She never returned to work after her unpaid.

Yes, Maternity leave is protected leave and she continued to accrue her entitlement to annual leave and public holidays during her maternity leave.
This includes the paid and unpaid leave.

Once she gave notice, and provided an official leave date, then her employer should have calculated her accrued days due and paid her for them.

Thanks Jewel. Where officially could I get this kind of information. Ie something to present to her ex employer?

MEant to add that the info I gave above was based on the assumption that your wife did not give her notice of termination until she was nearing the end of her mat leave.
If she told them before the mat leave that she wasn't coming back, then her termination date would have been shortly after that.
But, if she remained as an employee of the organisation during her maternity leave, and then only gave her notice of termination at the end, then her termination date would be dated in relation to then.
Any accrued leave is calculated from the actual date of termination, rather than the end of her mat leave e.g. she might have told her employer that she wasn't coming back, so she might have been in receipt of maternity benefit from the state, even though her termination date was much earlier.
When did she give her notice?

Citizens Information have some info at this link : http://www.citizensinformation.ie/c...conditions/leave-and-holidays/maternity_leave

Public holidays and annual leave

You are entitled to leave for any public holidays that occur during your maternity leave (including additional maternity leave). The right of employees to leave for public holidays is set down in Section 21 of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997.
Time spent on maternity leave (including additional maternity leave) is treated as though you have been in employment, and this time can be used to accumulate annual leave and public holiday entitlement

Thanks for your help. Yes she only decided to give her notice at the end of her mat leave as we looked at it and financially it wasn't worth it for her to return to work. Thanks for your help again.