Áine Collins (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate about the sustainability of An Post. I thank the Technical Group for bringing the motion before the House. I recently tabled a Topical Issue matter in which I discussed the change that is required imminently to secure the viability of the post office network. The main point I made was that following the announcement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, of a new reform package, an essential element of which is the availability of a standard bank account for every citizen, An Post should immediately be given a banking licence and thereby enabled to roll out that service to the 30% of the population who do not do business with banks and would consider their local post office the natural place in which to carry out such financial transactions. I also pointed out that in addition to this cohort of potential customers, there are other opportunities arising out of the policy of mainstream banks to close branches. AIB, for example, already provides a limited but useful service in some post offices where branches have been closed. Other banks should be encouraged to do likewise.

The recent awarding of the social welfare contract to An Post is welcome. However, the Department of Social Protection seems to be doing everything possible to encourage social welfare recipients to transfer to banks. In correspondence received by the Department, recipients are constantly asked for their bank details, with an indication that if such details are not forthcoming, their payments may be disrupted. If Government policy is to help post offices to stay open, particularly in rural areas, then there is an obligation on all Departments and State agencies to comply fully with that policy. An Post is a wholly-owned State company and, as such, it should not only be implementing Government policy but constantly looking for ways actively to promote it. I was in contact recently with An Post to ask what progress has been made in setting up a banking structure. While I did receive a reply, I did not detect any real urgency on the company's part in this regard.

The question must be asked as to how An Post failed to win the tender for the processing of driving licences. It seems inconceivable that an organisation like this, with an established network of offices and staff, could be outbid by an organisation that had no source office or staff to do the job. It is also hard to understand why the tender was designed in such a way as to confine the number of offices to 34 to serve the entire country when An Post would have been able to provide almost 1,100 such offices. Any decision made by the Government or by individual Departments should take into account the overarching policy decision to keep the post offices open.

An Post should be encouraged to examine innovative ways of providing new and profitable services by using the enormous asset it has in the post office network. People in decision-making positions must fulfil their democratic responsibility to adhere to Government policy. I am not at all sure, however, that some of them realise the consequences of the enforced closure of post offices. As it stands, many of them are on the edge.

I conclude by highlighting the potential for fraud prevention that may follow from encouraging more people to have their social welfare payments done through the post office. Where such payments are processed by banks, they can be accessed from anywhere in the world. In many cases, those payments are going to people who, for one reason or another, are no longer entitled to them. The cost of this to the Exchequer is evident. Last year, An Post returned €7 million in unclaimed payments to the Department of Social Protection while the banks did not return a single cent. Assuming the same level of fraud among bank customers as among post office customers, that suggests a loss of €7 million to the State.

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