Tipping in restaurants

Sir, – I refer to the Irish Times Magazine article "To tip or not to tip" (November 21st). While the smug consensus amongst the Irish commentators was that we have a much better system than the US or others, they completely avoided the most important question restaurant goers have, "Who gets the tip I leave?"

The sector representatives implied that all was okay – as we pay the minimum wage, this is not an issue – thus avoiding telling us what actually happens and effectively implying that service staff get 100 per cent. Yet we do not know that this is the norm as restaurants do not tell us on the menus.

Why not? They tell us about allergens, vegetation items, calories, healthy options, provenance, etc. Why so coy about service charges or the tipping policy?

And why are restaurant critics so slow to ask for transparency on tipping. Surely they are under no compliment to restaurateurs to avoid this issue? Surely they are in the perfect position to demand transparency about the ethical and right thing to do – but of course this is Ireland! – Yours, etc,

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MAURICE BERGIN

Little Island,

Cork.