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

Whether it is a big booking or a small booking, the people coming in are all paying for their service and the food. If one has a restaurant that has 30 seats, it is the same if those 30 seats are full by way of a group booking or 15 individuals picking up the phone and booking a table for two. The restaurant is getting the money, in any event. I do not accept that they have to put on more staff. If there are more people and more bookings, there is more staff. It does not matter whether these bookings are made up of three ten-person bookings, 15 two-person bookings or, indeed, 30 one-person bookings. The same number of staff will be required.

It has been a long time, but I worked in catering and hospitality for a number of years. The boss would always know in advance if there would be a big booking in. I have a concern. I accept what the Tánaiste is saying with regard to the case law. That is fine, but I have a concern that calling it a group booking charge is just like a service charge. We would have always understood, where if one is booking a table, it says service charge will apply for bookings over six or eight. I am sure the Tánaiste understands the concern I have. It relates directly to the tweet that I felt was an attempt, before the ink was even dry, to try to circumvent what I believe is the intention of the legislation.

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