Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was just about to deliver my greatest address in the Chamber but you have called me out on it.

I welcome the Minister and everyone in the Public Gallery who has been mentioned. There is no legal, technical or legislative impediment to supporting the legislation for the Government's colleagues in this House or in the other one. The strength and beauty of the legislation is its simplicity. It is succinct and direct but it hopes to achieve a great deal. The most powerful statement I heard at yesterday's briefing in the audiovisual room was that if a person is given precarious pay, it will lead to a precarious life. Thus far and on earlier Stages of the debate, we have spoken about staff relying on tips, which they need to make up the difference in their income because they are in precarious, low-paid work. That is the case, however, only when they receive the tips. We need to remember that much of the time, they do not even receive the tips, which is the whole point of the legislation.

Dublin city's tourism and hospitality sector is thriving. The remarks of Senator Conway-Walsh resonate with me and any of us who must travel to this city for work, where quite the buck is to be made in the hospitality sector. On Friday morning, I will travel with the Joint Committee on Justice and Equality and, as a result, I was planning to stay the previous night in Dublin to facilitate the journey. A large conference is taking place in the city tomorrow. While I do not know what it is, it is doubtless having an impact on the availability of accommodation. To stay one night - Thursday, 13 June - one fairly standard, corporate or business hotel in the city quoted me £936 sterling. It is not the case, therefore, that such hotels do not have the ability to pay their staff; they do.

The elephant in the room, however, is that they will not do so and choose not to do so. They pocket and steal the tips and keep them from the people to whom, as Senator Norris rightly said, we want to give a tip. We want to acknowledge their hard work. In a modest way, we also wish to extend a degree of solidarity, knowing full well the precarious nature of their work. As we progress the legislation and the debate, we must acknowledge that the other elephant in the room is a section of the political class which deems it okay to exploit workers or that a hotel provider can charge £936 sterling a night on a day when a conference is taking place in the city, while an immigrant working in the front of house cannot keep his or her tip. That goes to the heart of the opposition to the legislation. It is an ideologically driven approach that backs the bosses but not the workers because some politicians do not care. That is the greatest shame, which is why I urge colleagues across the House to reflect not only on the simplicity and the ability of the legislation to be passed but also on the profound impact it will have on social and economic justice for those in the hospitality sector.