Mr. Clement Shevlin:

I was talking recently to somebody who works in hospitality. I asked him why he remains in sector, where all the workers have gone and whether 40,000 of them really have just left all of a sudden. He is a comical sort of fellow and he told me they are like freed slaves. The Covid crisis took the chains off them because, before that, they did not realise what other kinds of jobs are out there and that they could receive better treatment from other employers. They have taken up those other jobs and they are not going back to hospitality.

Another thing this man mentioned, as also referred to by Dr. Curran, Mr. Kelly and Ms Dunne, is the situation regarding the JLC. It is about giving workers a voice. Why do they not have a voice and why will they not talk to a union? The simple reason is the fear they have that their shifts and hours will be changed and that they could experience harassment. There are all sorts of measures an employer can take, as some of them do every day in this country, to discourage employees from joining a union. To address that, the first thing the hospitality sector should be doing is allowing access for workers to Unite, SIPTU and all the unions that are invested in this issue. That is the first thing that should be done, even without a JLC. The employers should say they have a problem getting staff. They are going around all these groups and forums on how to get tourists into the country and encourage people to take staycations and all the rest, but they are not looking at the elephant in the room, which is that they do not have the staff to cook a dinner for customers or serve them a beer. They are still thinking about putting a service charge on a pint of beer. That is the level of thinking that is going on and it has to stop.

Campaigns on tipping by ONE Galway and Unite have given workers wings and have been followed up by political support such as the Bill brought forward by Senator Gavan. That kind of support shows people in the sector that legislation produced by the Oireachtas can change their lives within the workplace. It also shows employers there is an awakening within the hospitality sector and they will finally have to draw the curtains on the current situation and recognise they can no longer have it their own way because that is killing the industry. Every day in the Dáil Chamber, there are divisive opinions on different issues but Members have to come to some agreement. We all know how they do it. They sit in the Chamber and argue all day before coming up with a solution that is better for everyone in the country. That is all we are asking in respect of the hospitality sector. People cannot leave a blank in communications and then, all of a sudden, expect a solution. Solutions only come from engagement across the table.

The process of legislating for the treatment of tips began with the Bill that was introduced by Senator Gavan in 2019. That Bill was shot down. The Tánaiste has now brought in the new Bill, which is giving all the protections for tips, including electronic tips, that were sought. It means that if my daughter starts working in a restaurant once the Bill goes through, she will benefit from the tipping policy straight away. She will get a letter setting out the percentage of the tips to which she is entitled. If she does not get it, she has a pathway to the WRC to address it. That has never before been the case. The proposal to ring-fence service charges would mean, in a place like Galway city, where it is all tips and there is no service charge, and we did the research that shows this, there could be a switch all of a sudden to a service charge and the tips the workers rely on, which could be an extra €60, €70 or €80 a week, would now fall under a service charge. Technically, under the legislation, those moneys would have been ring-fenced for the employer to decide what to do with them.