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

If we tease out the Minister's speech and what it is going to mean to rural post offices, does the IPU consider that I am right, despite the Minister's assertion that the Government is not going to close down any offices? The Minister made great play yesterday in the media of trying to say the Government is not closing down post offices and so on. However, if one takes his speech to its ultimate, is he not saying that yes, post offices are going to close? That is one question.
With regard to an item touched on by other Deputies and Senators, the issue of the post office working in an ad hocway in conjunction with members of the Garda Síochána, does the IPU agree that, as has been proven, gardaí and those who want to carry out checks on who is who and what is what have always found the knowledge in local post offices to be very beneficial in dealing with their affairs?
With regard to the Department of Social Protection, it is true to say it is asking people for their bank details, in other words, it is telling them that it wants to pay them through the bank. The Department tells us, and has told me on numerous occasions in response to parliamentary questions, that for it to direct people to the post offices would be unfair as it would give the post offices an unfair advantage, and that it could not do that.

If the Department cannot actively encourage people to use post offices, how is it acceptable that it continues to direct people to use banks? These are the same banks which failed people in this country and continue to be a shambles. Surely common sense should prevail. If the Department is able to direct people to banks, it should equally be able to direct them to post offices. I am interested in the delegates' views on that.

It is not so many years ago that a Minister announced in Dáil Éireann the imminent closure of certain district hospitals, including those in Killarney, Kenmare and Cahersiveen and two in west Cork. That Minister believed he was making the right decision at the time. We all know what would have ensued in the following years if those district hospitals had closed. Where would we be now in terms of caring for elderly people in local communities? It is the exact same situation with the post offices. As Deputy Coffey rightly stated - it was the soundest statement we have heard today - there is no point in everybody dancing around after the post office network has disappeared, organising public meetings where we all go in shouting and roaring. Now is the time to take action.

I thank the Chairman for facilitating this debate. We must show the Government in no uncertain terms that the maintenance of the post office network is not just an aspiration. It is vital that every post office that has survived thus far is still there in 20 or 30 years time. We have an opportunity in this meeting, in advance of the vote in the Dáil, to make history. We must ask ourselves whether we are doing all we can to ensure the survival of the post office network not just for our children but for our grandchildren. The community hospitals I referred to, instead of being shut down, received the investment they required and we now realise we could not have done without them. At one time in the 1980s, however, a former Minister, in all good faith, considered it the best option to get rid of them. Politicians and officials sometimes get it wrong. We in this committee must ensure we get it right on this occasion.