Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. McRedmond and Ms Byrne for their presentation. I join with others in expressing my thanks to the staff across the country, both at the head office and working in post offices and on the ground, who did a sterling job during the pandemic. I also recognise the role of Mr. McRedmond and his staff in stabilising the company over the last number of years. I recall when the company had reached a point where its future viability was very uncertain. Well done on that. That is not to say I do not have some criticisms. Maybe that was the pat on the back before the kick in the ass but I have always had concerns about the network and I have expressed them to both the witnesses at different stages. While the profitability of the company is important as regards the proper structures and business model being in place, I have always seen the network as being on the hind tit of the organisation.

That is unfortunate. Reference was made to the pandemic payment for another 16 or 18 months. We have had that previously. It is an interim measure and it does not show confidence in the size, scale or breadth of the network. It would not give confidence to me if I was a postmaster. I would like to get an understanding from the witnesses about what size of a network they are aiming towards. This might take some of the mystery out of all this.

Mr. McRedmond identified, rightly, how An Post found its soul with regard to public service and its solidarity with the older and more vulnerable in our communities. I have no doubt that this is Mr. McRedmond's vision for the company, but if you overlay that vision on the post office network and on the village of Broadford, which was mentioned already, I must wonder where is the public service and the solidarity with the older and vulnerable people in and around Broadford. These people, who are known to me for a generation, now must travel much farther and seek the assistance of others to gain access to the service. I would like Mr. McRedmond to reflect on that. Broadford would fit the bill for co-location. There is a shop there that would readily accept the post office service. I fail to understand why, in An Post's necessity to consolidate operations and which we recognise, the consolidation should be on the ground in each of the villages. It should be about getting an appropriate co-location in each of the villages where An Post believes there is not a viable operation. When they are co-located with another business, a financial support mechanism could be put in place under a public service obligation.

An Post cannot have it all. It cannot have a public service model that is built around solidarity with older and vulnerable people and have a highly profit-driven company on the other end. An Post must find a means to marry the two. For sure, there are locations around the country that will readily have a post office service that will be profitable with enough of a population. There are, however, many villages like Broadford. There will be many more such Broadfords as the payment structure changes that close the post offices. It is not necessarily Government money that is required, although it requires Government support. An Post must find a way to reinvest the profits through a public service obligation model that sees some of the profit reinvested to support smaller more rural villages that are seeing a potential future due to what the pandemic has delivered for them. People can work from home and people will use services. While I recognise the effort that has been made with the Irish Postmasters Union, I appeal to Mr. McRedmond to look again at the network, at Broadford, and at the possibility of retaining the network in its current strength in a more imaginative way than would have been done prior to the pandemic.