Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 3, between lines 29 and 30, to insert the following: “(c) is paid with the intention that it is a gift from a customer to a server(s) intended for the benefit of the server and other employees;”.

I apologise, because I do not have numbered amendments. I sincerely hope I am talking to the right one. This is the amendment that relates to the gift. The purpose of this is to ensure that service charges are paid as a gift to workers. It is not for employers to add on additional charges. If a business wants to charge extra for a meal, it can add it to the price of the meal or drink. The business should not include this as a stealth charge. I specifically submitted this amendment in order to put on the record my concern with regard to a tweet from the Restaurants Association of Ireland, which was put out just after the Bill was in the Seanad. It sounded as though it was attempting, or thought there would be some way, for it to be able to circumvent this legislation. One of the tweets read that its understanding was that businesses are still permitted to apply a group booking charge as part of the new legislation. This looks as though some businesses might be trying to evade or avoid it or get around it.

I believe that the intention is to ensure that cannot happen. I would have thought that the wording was robust enough but, given that the tweet was put out as the Bill was being discussed, I naturally have concerns. I imagine that the Tánaiste will also have concerns, if he thinks someone will circumvent his legislation. It does a bit of a disservice to us, as legislators, if we are very clear about what the intention is. To be fair to the Tánaiste, he has been very clear. The ink was not even dry on the legislation before this tweet went out. That is where my concern comes from.

See this speech in context