I picked that tweet up in exactly the same way. I would have been one of the people to assume that, for example, a service charge was the same as making it easy to give a tip. I think many people have been under the same impression. I picked that tweet up in exactly the same way, in that it was a loophole. It is important that there is the prospect of reviewing this. I also would have thought that every restaurant wants to be full. They only have so many tables and chairs. I would have thought it was an advantage t…

I withdraw it.

Has the Taoiseach read the amendments?

It is impossible to vote confidence in this Government based on any objective analysis of its performance to date. This is a Government that is happy to acknowledge the vast number of people enduring serious financial pressure from an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis, yet it has consistently refused to introduce an emergency budget to provide workers and their families with interim relief in advance of the budget in the autumn. The Government is also blind to the havoc it is causing in housing, which has long mo…

-----and the continued long leasing of housing, which is a very expensive way of delivering housing, without there being an asset at the end, it has turned social housing into an attractive and profitable product. The €4 billion shrinks to nearly €2 billion when we make allowances for all of this. The direct builds of local authorities are in many cases turnkeys rather than direct builds and are not an addition to housing completion numbers. Last week's ESRI report is very sobering. The report states that one in th…

Once the Government had the numbers, the tone completely changed in terms of the Business Committee, guillotines, and how we do business in the House. It matters because that changed the nature of the debate in the House and was, I believe, a big mistake. The Dáil does not have control of the agenda; the Government has taken control of it. It is for those and a myriad of other reasons that it seems as if many of our public services are stuck together with sellotape. There are a myriad of failures and by no objectiv…

This has been a very unusual evening in the week prior to recess. An hour ago, we had a full Chamber and now we are speaking about outer space.

I congratulate the UCD researchers on their work on EIRSAT-1. They have been working on the satellite for approximately five years. I wish them the best of luck with the launch and its operation. This will be Ireland's first satellite and it is unlikely to be the last. There are no international regulations for the operation of satellites in orbit. There is no traffic management system or pollution regulations. It is up to each nation to implement its own policies and hold itself accountable. We will never put as m…

Like others, I will be supporting this Bill and its progress. Probably, the only surprising aspect is that workers require this kind of protection. Most people would have assumed that when a tip is given, the tip goes to the worker. One in five workers in the State is classed as low paid, that is, approximately 370,000 people. Ireland's rate of low pay is significantly above the EU average, ranking eighth out of 27. Among other high income countries in the EU, we have the second highest rate of low pay. This is not…

I thank Deputy Collins. Yes. I met her. She spoke at a May Day conference that we held just a few months ago. She was very impressive. It is easy to sit on the other side when you win, but she told us about the toll it took on her to get to the point where they did win on that and how nothing much has changed for other people she knows, who she is trying to organise within the industry. It is really important to listen to people like her because it shows just how vulnerable workers in that industry are. At its appe…

I acknowledge our guests in the Visitors Gallery this morning. We know that a cost of disability payment is not a new concept. To achieve equality for people with disabilities, it is fundamental that the additional costs that come with disability are not paid by them alone. It is the responsibility of the State to cover those additional costs. The payment was originally recommended in 1996 and again in 2004, that is 26 years. It is a lot of Governments and a lot of time in which action has not been taken. The Cost …

The purpose of this directive would be to provide protection to individuals and organisations, particularly journalists, whistleblowers, watchdogs and human rights activists, against so-called SLAPP lawsuits. SLAPPs can be described quite simply as privatised censorship. The vast majority of SLAPPs are pursued by wealthy and powerful litigants with the sole purpose to intimidate and silence their critics. They are an abuse of the legal system, an insult to the concept of free speech and freedom of expression and a …

I, too, have tabled an amendment, as have other Members, on including a sunset clause. It just would not have proved possible to put in a series of amendments in the time that was allowed. During the Second Stage debate, the Minister said that she intended to bring the general scheme forward to the far end of this year. I believe that Deputy Howlin's amendment is very generous with the amount of time it provides. It is not just the process that was wrong here. Consultation is not just sending out the Bill the night…

I have also tabled an amendment seeking a sunset clause. I think there are probably several of them. If the general scheme is to supersede this legislation and other legislation, I would have thought it would be self-evident that a sunset clause would be a safeguard, which would be the minimum we would expect. It needs to be stated very clearly that if this Bill passes, we will be making mistakes. Many mistakes with this legislation can be foreseen and I will come back to those issues later but there will inevitabl…

I assume the Minister appreciates it is quite difficult to know where to begin with this legislation because it is multifaceted. It is rushed but there is an emergency nature to it at the same time. I accept that is the case. We know mistakes will be made, even if we cannot identify them at this stage, because this legislation is being passed at breakneck speed. I am not referring to this specific Bill, but even in situations where there are issues with rushed legislation that can be identified at the time it is be…

Since the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform pulled the plug on Benefacts, a name that will not be familiar to many of the public but that provided a valuable public service, I have been trying to figure out exactly what the Department has against open, transparent and comprehensive data. Benefacts was set up in 2014 at the request of the Department to provide transparency on the financial affairs of Ireland's mammoth €14 billion not-for-profit sector. For the first time, detailed audited financial and gov…

We had the Secretary General of the Department before the Committee of Public Accounts and I took the opportunity to speak to him about this. I raised the issue of the report the Department commissioned from Indecon. Before he closed it down, I asked him whether he had read the report and he told me he had not, which I thought that was quite extraordinary. He said he had got a briefing on it. It is not a particularly long report. Having read it, it would not suggest the cost outweighed the benefits; in actual fact,…

I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "— resolves that sections 2 to 4, 6 to 12 and 17 of the Offences against the State (Amendment) Act 1998 (No. 39 of 1998) shall continue in operation for the period beginning on 30th June, 2022 and ending on 29th June, 2023; and — in the absence of any specific information being presented which points to the inadequacy of the ordinary courts in the administration of justice in Ireland with specific regard to offences liste…

The Social Democrats will support this motion. On Monday, we saw Russian forces launching a missile strike on a crowded shopping centre. It was an horrific and a blatant attack on innocent civilians. Nineteen people were confirmed killed and many more were injured or unaccounted for. It is important for us to reiterate that Ireland and the European Union stand united with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people against this callous barbarism and depravity. Putin, his regime, and his cronies who profit from all of this mus…

It is just under two months since the House last debated reform of the insurance sector. In that time, the situation has grown worse. The Insurance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022, which was discussed at the time, is a step in the right direction, but it does not represent the radical reform needed to address the cost of insurance. The fundamental issue is cost. We must not forget that affordable insurance is fundamental to the long-term interests of our country. High insurance premiums add significantly to th…