Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that is a bit of a mouthful, but we will try to deal with as much as we possibly can. Amendment No. 3 proposes that “mandatory service charge” be renamed “mandatory charge”. This reflects our decision to refine our approach to service charges and transparency. Again, the Tánaiste committed reviewing this since the Second Stage debate here in February.

The definition will remain the same, but our view is that, in fact, the charges concerned do not have a clear and direct link with the service provided by employees. As we already discussed, where a business describes something as a service charge, that creates a customer expectation that the charge is directly for the benefit of the staff. The definition of “mandatory service charge” is broad and this was always intended as an anti-avoidance mechanism. The direct link to service was always quite limited. This change facilitates the policy adjustment we already discussed, restricting the use of the term “service charge” in certain context. Amendments Nos.10, 13, 40, 58, 60, 70 and 72 are consequential amendments to ensure the term “mandatory charge” will be used throughout the Bill.

On the service charge in other sectors, just to be very clear, it is important to note the provisions of the Bill will not apply to all sectors. They will be applied by means of ministerial regulation where it is appropriate to do so. They will be applied only to areas where tips and gratuities are a regular feature and where there is significant customer uncertainty as to what a service charge is for. Nothing will change for utility bills, for example, because nobody expects a service charge for broadband to be like a tip or gratuity. I think we are all on the same page here. We are focusing on hospitality and that is what we are talking about here. The regulations are there to reflect that.

If the Chair wants me to go into the other amendments tabled, I can deal with them all.