Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The important thing is that they keep up their campaign. There is something very strange indeed when speaker after speaker from the Government side says they must commit themselves to the defence of the post office network and they will do nothing to endanger rural post offices or post offices in small villages and towns, yet the Government does not commit, and presumably the very same Deputies who spoke refuse to commit, to support the motion that has been tabled calling for precisely that commitment to be written down. Instead, they call for the deletion of that motion and put forward an amendment which is absent of any serious commitment.

Of course, that is the truth. We can all express concern. We can all express in the vaguest rhetorical way our commitment to the post offices and the post office network but if we do not take concrete, real action to secure that network, then the words mean absolutely nothing. What is worrying from the comments of Deputy Harrington is when he says things like, "Well, it is up to whether people come and use the post office". Sure, the people should use the post office.

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