Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have this opportunity to speak in support of this Bill. I thank Sinn Féin for bringing it forward. It has always been my understanding that if someone gives a tip, it is for the waiter or the workers and not for management. It is for the staff. I have had no complaints in my county that anything other than that happens, but I hear it happens in other parts of the country. I am disgusted about that. In my county of Kerry I have not heard a complaint about it from any staff, and I am around it as much as anyone. I am glad to support this Bill to ensure that the staff get the tips. If I give a tip to someone, I would mean it to be for the staff, the waiters and the workers in the kitchen or whoever. It is rarely I go out like that. That is what I always understood the tip was for. If I go back far enough, and I am going back a good bit now, when I was a young fellow cutting hay with a 135 and a finger bar mower, if I got a tip of a half crown or ten shillings from a farmer, I would make sure I cut it as close it as I could to the ditch for him and that I would leave nothing standing. One man used to give an English pound note every so often and I never forgot him.

Tips are definitely for the staff and not for the management. As Deputy Michael Collins said, there has been a drop in the tourism business because of the Government's drastic increase in the VAT rate, and I hope the Minister of State is listening to me. It has already hit County Kerry and there is a reduction in business. We can attribute it to nothing else but that. We had two great years in 2017 and 2018 but the signs are that it will not be as good this year. There is only one factor that is being directed at and it is the increase in the VAT rate. It was too severe and too much together, and the Government should have realised that. I am disappointed the Minister of State with responsibility for tourism, Deputy Griffin, who comes from our county allowed that happen in a county that depends so much on tourism.

Let there be no ambivalence about it, however, that I am supporting the Bill in order that this issue is addressed throughout the country, although it does not appear to be an issue in County Kerry as I have heard no complaints, to ensure that workers get their tips, which is what the Bill is about.

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