Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will try to be as brief as possible. To those members of the public who happen to be watching these proceedings, I note that Senator Mac Lochlainn is right in that there has been a gradual collapse in the post office network. The reason that happened is that no Minister wanted to be put in the position in which I have been placed today. I am trying to set out a viable future for the post office network. Perhaps not publicly, but privately everyone in this room will accept that we cannot keep every single post office open. When members go to their public meetings they have to take a different approach, but I have decided that we need to have a viable future for our post office network. It is not acceptable to continue to allow post offices to close at a rate of one every second week for the next 12 months to two years. Rather, we must set out a clear future for our post office network and put real new services into post offices.

I taken the point Senator Mac Lochlainn makes about looking at solutions. In fairness, I have had a great deal of engagement with the Senator down through the years. He is someone who is very constructive in that regard. From my experience dealing with the management team in An Post, I know that any constructive proposal put to it will be explored and considered in a genuine way. I come back to the point I made earlier and to Deputy Neville and Senator Mulherin who referred to specific cases regarding specific post offices. The chief executive cannot speak to that at this meeting. However, it is the reason that there is a review mechanism built into this. It is so that those specific, individual cases which may not be known to the company can be looked at independently of the company. That is why there is a mechanism for local retailers to contact An Post if they believe they can offer some or all of those services in their own local communities. That can be independently reviewed by this team. The mechanism is there because there are specific and unique circumstances in individual communities which it is not possible to foresee in relation to the statistics. I encourage those communities to make submissions and let the independent team look at the position.

Senator Mac Lochlainn referred specifically to the postal services directive. It is not an impediment to investment. The Government is making an investment of €30 million, of which €15 million is for the postal mail service and €15 million is for the post office network service. The postal services directive deals with the universal service obligation in respect of the five-day a week delivery service. In fact, it is a tool I was able to use to maintain the five-days-a-week postal service. Thankfully, and in answer to some of the questions here, anyone who travels in rural Ireland today on a Saturday will see an An Post van. No one can tell me that is not an expansion in services. It is a new service which was not there heretofore in rural Ireland. It is absolutely the case that we need to put more services into rural Ireland. The company is committed to that and is going to invest in every single one of those post offices which remain in the network. I note to Deputy Harty that they will see new capital investment to modernise facilities, technology and the services they provide in communities.

On community banking, a report was compiled and published. It was identified at the time that the next steps include exploring a local public banking avenue. The very next step involves a tender to secure external consultants to carry out an independent evaluation of local public banking and to run a stakeholder forum. I understand that the Department of Finance is drafting the terms of reference for that tender and has engaged with Irish Rural Link and the SBCI to get their input. That is something that is ongoing in tandem with the work An Post is doing in respect of its banking services.