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

I will try to deal with this as best I can. Senators are keen to extend the Bill to cover all cash tips and gratuities. I understand this. We would all like to do this but it is exactly as Senator Casey has said. It is about what is possible to trace and manage in law.

With respect, I cannot disregard what the Workplace Relations Commission recommends to us. It is the body that will be charged with policing the legislation we introduce. I assume we want legislation that is workable and enforceable. We are all on the same page in that we would like to be able to do it but it has to be enforceable or else it will be legislation that is not worth bringing in.

The Workplace Relations Commission is a body we all respect and engage, with and we have asked it to police this. I assume we are all happy that it does its job extremely well. If not, that is a different story but I believe it does in general. This is the issue we have. There is a general prohibition on making deductions from any employee but there is no accompanying penalty. The Bill is clear that it is an offence but there is no penalty because we cannot police it.There is no point in kidding ourselves on that. It has to be legislation that is enforceable or else the rest of it will not be worth the paper it is written on. The reason for this is simple. Cash left voluntarily simply is not traceable. We will not have any evidence on which to base enforcement provisions. Electronic payments create an evidential trail that can be examined if there is a complaint.

We have to recognise that most payments, except maybe those of Senator Buttimer and a few others, are now being made electronically.