Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte romhat, a Leas-Chathaoirligh, and happy St. Brigid's Day. It is good that we are springing into action on this very important Bill. I welcome the work that the Tánaiste has done on this legislation.

I agree with the phrase that once a waitress, always a waitress. Even now when I eat out with people I cannot help stacking the plates and wiping the table. I have worked as a waitress in Germany, America and Ireland, and waitressing has gotten me through certain stages of my life. I always remember the buzz when someone bothered to leave a tip or appreciated my work and acknowledged my existence as a person, opposed to some kind of a removed thing who serves customers. For that reason, I think tips play a huge part in showing respect for the service industry. The industry in Ireland has suffered in some ways. It is not easy to recruit people. This Bill will give new confidence to the whole service industry because there was a lot of bad press when a small number of employers did not share tips. I remember joining a picket line a few years ago at a restaurant located not very far from here because I discovered that the staff did not get their tips. I joined because as a waitress I understood how the staff felt. This is a really positive Bill in that context.

I live in north Clare. It is a beautiful place so we have lots of visitors and lots of great cafés. Many people I know, including friends of mine, work in the service industry as waiters and waitresses. I am sure that there is a better term now to describe their work but they serve people at tables. I think the legislation is great because it is hard to find people to do such work. As Senator Crowe alluded to, if there is a new confidence in the industry, that might help to stabilise the situation because staff come and go. One of the problems with the tipping system, especially with the greater use of cards, is that many customers do not have confidence that their money will go to the person who impressed them by providing a quality service.

The Bill provides four main changes. For other people who are not here today, the Bill will give employees a legal entitlement to receive tips and gratuities paid by card; oblige employers to prominently display their policy, which is important as it will give confidence to customers that the employers will distribute the cash and card tips; and oblige employers to fairly distribute tips. This legislation will not affect businesses where tips are managed by employees, which is also very important because that is often the case. Employers are often happy to let their employees figure out tips between them and I think that is called the tronc system.

The Bill will assist anyone who is on a low income. Even though tipping is more of an American thing, it has become more prevalent here. People who do their job well in the service industry deserve a tip, if one feels like giving it to them. Waiting staff are often the lowest income earners in the country. Tips can make such a difference to you if you are on a low income. A good tip at the end of the night can really put you in better form, especially if you might not have done a good job that day. If tips are spread evenly, everyone benefits, which is really important.

The Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, published a paper in 2020 on minimum wage policy in Ireland. It found that 8% of employees are on the minimum wage and half of them work in the services sector. So it is really good that we are looking at that. I hope that the quality of life of these people will improve if customers feel more confident to give them tips and that employers will ensure their staff get tips.

The Bill will help to tackle the gender pay gap because a lot more women work in the sector than men. I do not know why that is the case because women are not born with an extra skill in how to set and clear tables. That is just the way it is in a patriarchal society, but you have that with lots of other things.

The people who work in the service industry have had some of the riskiest jobs during the pandemic. They have been on the front line in terms of hospitality and it is right that they should be fairly compensated for their work. It is right that people who leave tips in restaurants know that their money goes to staff, which is what most people believe happens when they leave a tip. I am still a cash kind of girl and it is only since I came to Dublin that I have started to use cards more often. I always feel confident leaving my cash behind me on a table but I do not always have confidence leaving a gratuity on the machine. Plus, I forget to tip because I am not used to using a card in that way and I am used to putting the money on the table.

This legislation is an important step in implementing a living wage and tackling costs of living because a lot of low-income earners are waiters and waitresses. The Bill is an important step in moving towards a living wage. The current minimum wage in Ireland is €10.50 per hour. We have made a commitment in the programme for Government to progress to a living wage over the lifetime of the Government. It is important that we address this and also the high costs that families face, including high rent and childcare costs. The Government is committed to doing this. I want to particularly note the work being done on this by my colleague the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, whom I know has worked with the Tánaiste. The Minister is transforming the childcare model in Ireland, which will see services increasingly publicly funded and publicly managed.

I note that the Low Pay Commission is due to report back to the Tánaiste on progressing towards a living wage and I thank him for his work on that. I ask him to update us on the timeline and content of the report.

When this Bill is passed, will we do a proper public campaign to ensure all employers and employees become aware of the legislation and are fully informed? I do not know whether we should use billboards for that. I know we can write to every business but they get letters from everybody on everything. When the Bill is passed, it would be good to ensure the information is out there because I remember what it was like when I was a young waitress. I remember getting to the end of a hard working day and knowing that I had done a really good job but getting very few tips or none. I did not have the confidence to ask my employer where the tips were. I realise that there is still a small group in the sector who may not be assertive enough to ask for their tips.I was quite an assertive 17-year-old, but I was not assertive enough to ask for my tips. It is really good that workers have become aware of this issue.

This is a really important Bill because it affects the lives of the more vulnerable in society. It is important that if it is passed, there will be a proper public relations campaign in respect of it to inform the few employers who are not dealing with this issue properly and to ensure the few employees who are not asking for their tips know they have a right to them once the Bill is passed. I thank the Tánaiste for this very positive Bill.