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

What is worrying about the Government amendment and about its whole approach to this issue is that, essentially, it is saying that post offices will stand or fall depending on market forces. If they can cut the mustard in the cut-throat competition with the banks and Tesco, maybe they will survive, but if they cannot, the post offices are gone. That is not good enough. What this motion says is that we want a concrete and real commitment to maintain the post office network in towns and villages throughout the country because the post office is more than just a business.

Just in case Government Deputies think they have a monopoly on this, we lost a post office in Dún Laoghaire recently. Small post offices are being threatened in Dún Laoghaire and small villages and towns just like the small businesses that are being hammered in towns like Dún Laoghaire and rural areas. Obviously, the rural areas are being worst hit but the problem is general. It seems this Government will always facilitate big corporations, banks and big interests and if they swallow up, destroy and undermine small businesses and things as important as the post office, the Government will just let it happen because it is so committed to this cut-throat market ideology of profit coming first. It should put the people and communities first and support the post office network.

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