Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Gavan for bringing forward this important legislation.

The situation in Ireland is that if the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, or I go to a restaurant or café and leave a tip for the staff who serve us, there is no guarantee that tip will go to the staff.

It could end up in the business owner's pocket and that is wrong. We all know that hospitality workers are some of the lowest paid people in this country. They are in an industry where worker's rights are trodden all over by a significant number of employers every single day.

All this Bill seeks to do is to give transparency to the customers so that they know where their tips is going. It also aims to ensure business owners cannot pick the pockets of their staff. It is a bit rich of the Government, after eight years in office, to suddenly come out the other day and state that it is working on legislation similar to this Bill. That legislation goes nowhere near far enough. Part of that proposed legislation, which nobody has seen but it has been widely reported on, will include a voluntary code of conduct. Another word for "voluntary" in this sense is unenforceable. It is completely pointless and is a Fine Gael cop-out.

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