Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Fair play to the Minister. It is grand to make a submission but Deputy Naughten is the Minister now, so the days of submissions are gone. He can act and I am asking him to do so. There is a huge potential for growth within the post office. Every one of them is computerised, even the very small ones and those in the non-viable areas. There is a huge potential there for future business.

The Minister also said that no one was forced to take this package, and I have no reason to disagree with him. I actually agree with him on that point. Many people took it for reasons of health, age, etc. Some of them just wanted to give up. There is no reason the service for those areas cannot be re-tendered to at least keep the post office open. Let the people retire.

With respect, I think it was bordering on mind games to ask people whether they wanted to take a package or not. In many cases, the community is in essence blaming the postmasters but it is not their fault at all. They were offered a package, which in fairness was a good package, but it has left the community in many cases without its heart and nucleus.