Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this Private Members' Bill. When I heard of it first, I said it struck a chord of well meaning. I congratulate Sinn Féin on bringing it before the House. I have some difficulty - not much difficulty - with some issues.

I had a restaurant over 20 years ago and am proud that the staff kept their tips. I had one member of staff who did not remember orders, was not very fast and sometimes got orders wrong. However, she could smile and say, "Hello", "Please" and "Thank you". She got more tips than I got for running the restaurant and fair play to her. It is wonderful to get service with a smile and people tip because of that. It is sometimes not because of the quality of the meal, but because somebody has been pleasant to them. Fair play to anybody who gets plenty of tips.

I saw anomalies in my restaurant where I allowed the staff to keep their tips. While it was not a high-class restaurant, the tips were quite good. However, when there was a party of 15 or 20 people and the person serving that table got a huge tip, sometimes it did not go into the fund for all the staff. That is an issue. Some people are blaming unscrupulous employers, but sometimes it is an issue when a bill came to €200 or €300 and somebody got a tip of €50 that did not go into the pot. I do not know how we can legislate for that. I suppose it is human nature in some ways. I am very supportive of staff keeping tips.

I agree with Senator Nash that if there are 15 or 20 staff in a restaurant, from a solidarity point of view everyone should have a fair share, and maybe the owner-manager of the restaurant should be able to have a say in how the tips are divided. Maybe even if there was €300 or €400 at the end of the night, it could be €10 or €20 each, because it shows that people were involved. The Senator is right in what he said about joint labour committees. We are looking at one angle and I can understand where he is coming from, but we need to tease this out further.

I think we in Ireland are quite generous with tips. When I visit the United States, a state of panic and confusion sets in because we do not know exactly what to give. I can be in a bar and if someone buys me a bottle of beer, I nearly buy him two or three bottles of beer back, and that is the barman. The minimum wage in the United States is only $5.85 and most of the staff rely on the tips, whereas in Ireland it is €9.55. I agree it is not a living wage and I accept that tips should be considerably more generous.

A balance needs to be struck here and it is never easy. We have to think about businesses, restaurants and employers. I want to speak on behalf of employers because I employed up to 50 people in two separate retail businesses. It is quite difficult to keep businesses open. It was quite difficult to address the minimum wage, although I welcomed it. If a business cannot afford to pay the minimum wage, it is not a viable business. There were challenges. Most businesses did not go out to oppose the minimum wage, but effectively there was no system in place. When it came, I would not say it closed many businesses but it certainly did not help to keep the businesses open. I very much welcome the minimum wage which was one of the best things that happened in our country. It provides solidarity with the staff.

The Bill is welcome. We need to look at practices elsewhere, such as what is happening in the UK. We can probably come up with a better and more holistic way of dealing with it. Senator Nash's proposal of a joint labour committee addressing all the major issues could be the way forward. It is a Bill worthy of debate and contains many good points.