New law to ensure hospitality tipping goes directly to workers
Legislation is set to be introduced to ensure service charges in bars and restaurants go directly to workers.
The move will be brought forward as part of a new Bill on tips that is before the Seanad on Wednesday afternoon.
The amendment to the Bill also means customers will no longer be asked to pay mandatory service charges at restaurants or pubs.
The law will ban employers from placing a mandatory service charge unless those payments are treated by the employer in the same way as electronic tips or gratuities.
Any additional charges that are not going to staff must be now be explicit.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said: “Our overall objective with the Bill is to prevent employers from using tips or gratuities to make up basic wages and to introduce transparency about how tips and service charges are distributed.”
Emergency call service system 'out of action for more than an hour'
The State's emergency call system was out of action for more than an hour in the early hours of Tuesday morning, it has been confirmed.
The service was unable to handle emergency calls to 999 and 112 between 1am and 2.15am on Tuesday.
In a statement, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications said the outage affected approximately 227 callers.
All those affected received a follow-up call by An Garda Síochána.
The department was notified of the issue by BT Communications Ireland Ltd (BTCIL) which has a contract to deliver the Emergency Call Answering Service.
Victims scammed out of €800,000 in romance fraud cases on dating apps
Thirty-one cases of romance fraud have been reported to gardaí this year, costing the victims more than €800,000.
All cases except one, reported between January 2022 to the end of May 2022, occurred after the victims met the suspect over a dating app or through social media.
Gardaí are urging the public to be aware of romance fraud as they continue to investigate a large number of money laundering offences.
In September 2021, gardaí received a request for assistance from the Hungarian Police through Interpol, who were investigating a case of romance fraud where a female was deceived into sending $4,000 to a fraudulent account.
Irish people exercising less, isolated and more stressed
People in Ireland are exercising less, socially isolated and more stressed in 2022, according to new research.
Since the Covid pandemic, the number of people describing themselves as feeling lonely or isolated has almost doubled, increasing to 34 per cent, while 76 per cent now say they enjoy spending time alone, up from 48 per cent in 2019.
This is according to Irish Life Health of the Nation research.
The research found that exercise is decreasing and the average weight has increased by half a stone since 2018, while people are more sedentary during the work day.
St Vincent's Hospital urges patients to avoid emergency department
St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin is appealing to the public to avoid its emergency department.
The south Dublin hospital said services are under "extreme pressure" due to the high number of patients attending the emergency department.
In a statement, it appealed to patients who do not need emergency care to contact their GP.
Any patient who is in need of emergency hospital care will be seen and the hospital urged such patients not to delay and to seek care.
The move comes amid increasing transmission of Covid-19 in Ireland, with the number of detected and reported cases and hospital admissions increasing in recent days.
