Make sure to change your clocks this Easter weekend

Don't forget to change your clocks as summer time begins this Easter weekend.

While you wouldn't know it by the weather, summer time officially commences at 1 am on Sunday, March 31 meaning clocks and watches and other timepieces should be put forward one hour at that time.

Summer time will end at 1am on Sunday, October 27.

Every winter, clocks go back one hour. They go forward one hour in spring. The clocks change at the same time in the EU.

Ireland has the same time as the UK and Portugal. This is one hour behind Central European Time, which is used in most of the EU.

Why do we change the clocks?

The main reason clocks is to get the most out of the daylight.

The famous American politician and inventor Benjamin Franklin first came up with the idea in France in 1784. He suggested that if people got up earlier, it would save on candles.

The German Government was the first to officially change clocks in 1916 during the World War I to save energy - the logic being that the longer the daylight hours lasted, the less electricity was required.

In 2019, the European Parliament voted in favour of ending these seasonal time changes. EU institutions have not made progress on implementing the decision, and the European Commission has said that it does not plan to submit a new proposal on the matter to the Parliament.

This means that no changes are expected to summer and winter time in the coming years.