Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have listened to the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, and the Minister, Deputy Regina Doherty. It never surprises me how Fine Gael can come up with ways to scupper a Bill that has broad support, has passed in the Seanad and is supported by sectors and workers, the trade union movement and a number of organisations in Galway and Cork, to mention a few. I am struck by the lengths to which the Government goes to try to take down a very decent concept which any ordinary person can subscribe to. Listening to the Minister, I was reminded of my first job as a 13 year old when I worked alongside my mother for a summer. My mother and her colleague, Annie, were the people who cleaned up after the guests in our local hotel. They dressed the beds and made sure everything was fit when the guests came back that night or to welcome new guests. They built up relationships with people who returned over and over again. My mother and Annie always received whatever tips were provided and they needed every single one of them. They worked damn hard in their jobs in the hospitality sector. Others in the same situation, who are also working hard, are being denied those tips because the employer feels he or she can do so as there is no law to outlaw it. That is despicable.

There are a number of bad employers. We have seen all the research on this and have had all the statistics put on record. Still, the Government decides this is not the time or the Bill to introduce. The Minister went to extreme lengths. She knows that one of the only ways to block the Bill is through a money message, given that it has majority support in both Houses. She said she is acting on Standing Orders 178 and 179 in requesting a money message. The Minister knows fine well that the Government cannot prevent this through a money message. It will be the Bills Office that will make that determination. She went on to say that this brings up to 10,000 business establishments within the scope of the Workplace Relations Commission. Every single one of them is already under the scope of the WRC and is already subject to supervision and compliance by it. Last year and the year before, about 600 premises were inspected. They do not go in to inspect compliance with one piece of legislation but look at all of the legislation. Last year, they found non-compliance of 38% in the hospitality sector in respect of the Employment Permits Act, the National Minimum Wage Act, the Workplace Relations Act, the Organisation of Working Time Act, and the Payment of Wages Act. When this Bill passes, it will also be able to look at compliance with it. The signal the Government is trying to send out that this will cost additional money is not accurate. It shows the extent to which the Government is trying to deny people who have been given tips legitimately by customers the ability to ensure that when they finish their shift, or at the end of the month when the tips are distributed, they will get what was rightly intended to be in their pockets, not in the pockets of the employer.

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