Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, under ethics legislation, I would like to declare an interest in that I am a postmaster and I own a small post office, which has one full-time employee. I welcome the witnesses and thank them for the campaign they have been running over the last weeks and months in trying to highlight the problem that is facing our post office network throughout the country.

I must lead a boring life because the last thing I did before closing my eyes last night was to re-read the speech the Minister gave in the Dáil yesterday. It deserves to be reread. I would like to hear the views of the witnesses of my take on the speech. Does the IPU take the same impression that I do from his speech, namely, despite what he said, the thrust behind it amounts to the final death-knell over the coffin that is our post office network? The reason I say this is because of his assertion that people are moving away from the high street and, if we do not follow or, in other words, if the postal service does not tie up with the big multinationals, it is going to be left behind. Right away, what does that tell us about the real rural network of-----