Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Maye, Mr. O'Callaghan and Mr. Duddy for their presentation today which is very thought-provoking. There is certainly room for a debate on the way in which our banking model works in this State. However, our primary concern is the post office network and while I accept that the PBFI is offering a potential solution to the maintenance of the network by the creation of this bank, I must put on the record my concerns about conflating the two issues. I see the post office network as one that delivers a service. The PBFI is advocating the creation of a banking model that will turn our current model on its head. That is a debate for the Oireachtas committee on finance or elsewhere but to do all of that and to save the network in the short time that we have available to us stretches it somewhat. The people I meet and represent in my community and in other communities are anxious to retain a local post office so they can get basic post office services and get their payments. They are not queueing up for another bank. That said, I am sure they would queue up for the kind of attractive offering to which Mr. Maye referred.

A number of questions arise. How quickly could such a bank be put in place? What would it cost? How much would have to be invested by the State? Where would the expertise to set up such a bank quickly come from? Mr. Maye said that it could be done at the stroke of a pen. I have had the privilege of listening to Mr. Duddy on a number of occasions when he argued that An Post had a banking licence previously and that it was only a matter of reinitiating it. I am no banking expert but if one is to lend money, one needs to have money in the first instance in order to be able to get money from the markets. One also needs to be in a position to give confidence to those who will deposit money with one. All of that takes time.

I have listened with interest to Mr. O'Callaghan talking about the Kiwibank model in New Zealand and the Sparkasse model in Germany and that is all good. However, Ireland is a different country with a different culture and we do things differently. If one takes a farmer in west Clare who has just sold his herd of cattle, would PBFI have the capacity to assure him that his money in safe in such a bank? Is it possible to get that kind of model in place quickly in order to save the post office network? Certainly, the ideas are good and the issue definitely needs to be addressed over time but we have a crisis now and Mr. O'Callaghan knows that better than anyone. There are 159 post offices closing in the next two to three months. How does PBFI propose to put a bank in place to resolve that matter?