Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 3:

In page 4, lines 19 to 26, to delete all words from and including “(1) The” down to and including line 26 and substitute the following:

“(1) Sections 4B to 4F shall apply to all employers carrying on a business in the State in relation to which the payment of tips or gratuities by customers typically applies.”.

I am not, I am just joking.

At the moment in section 4A, which is proposed to be added to the principal Act, there is this big long process about the things the Minister should take into account in terms of whether the essence of what we are passing here applies to an employer or a class of employers. He or she must take into account "whether or not employers to which the regulations relate are carrying on a business in the State in relation to which the payment of tips or gratuities by customers typically applies". I agree with that. It is the provision that makes sense but then there is a whole load of other stuff and I do not understand why it is there. For example, the second provision refers to "the likely impact of such regulations on employment, either generally or in the particular economic sector to which the regulations relate". Let us say we have an emerging sector where tips are increasingly being paid, which can happen, that is, tips become normal in an area of the economy where they were not normal before. Does that raise the possibility employers' organisations can say if we had everyone paying tips here, or if we ensured everyone could not steal the workers' tips, then we would have to let workers go and employment could be affected?

The amendment is very simple in the sense it removes all the other things that must be considered and simply says this should "...apply to all employers carrying on a business in the State in relation to which the payment of tips or gratuities by customers typically applies". Surely that is the thing. What matters is that this is a sector of the economy where tipping exists, is common etc. as opposed to all the other things that are referenced.

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