Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes. There is no doubt that the alarm bells are ringing and I want to commend the Irish Postmasters Union. The union's political actions are raising public awareness, as is the fact that this committee is also engaged. I have met Mr. McGann previously and he knows my experience of this. I witnessed the closure of Kill post office in County Waterford, which An Post handled very badly by not communicating with the public. Hundreds of people packed a hall after the horse had bolted because the closure had already happened. That is the problem as I see it. Many of those people had inadvertently moved their business away from the post office and had thus contributed to the closure. Whether we like it or not, that is a fact and the public needs to understand that.

As a Government backbencher I will be trying to force Departments to take the necessary action. As we all know, however, Departments operate as silos. They examine their budgets to make savings but there is no interconnectivity. The An Post network is falling down because there is not a cross-cutting strategy by all Departments to address the issue of sustainability. I commend the Irish Postmasters Union on its ongoing efforts, but packing hundreds into a community hall after the horse has bolted is not the answer. We need to get these issues addressed now, rather than after the event.