Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. I welcome Ms Bolger and I wish her well in her new role. It is important to first put on the record that I am a postmaster in Longford. I am well aware of the situation. As pointed out by Ms Bolger, the An Post network is a jewel in the nation's crown. Somebody else mentioned that it is our national company and that, as in the case of Aer Lingus, we should take pride in it. An Post needs to be supported and maintained. A recent Grant Thornton report included a modelling exercise on the value of the network to the country based on a report done in the UK. It put the value of the network to the country at €500 million, which is a significant amount. It is imperative that Government supports An Post.

We are in a very difficult period. The pandemic payment put in place by An Post runs until 31 December 2022 but the reality is there has been a significant reduction in wages for a large number of postmasters. Many of them will, I believe, decide to leave on the basis of gratuity payments etc. It will be extremely difficult to get other people to fill those positions and this may lead to significant closures in about 18 months' time. There was mention of the type of services that Government should provide. I refer to the recent issue with regard to the delays in respect of passport applications, which we are now dealing with daily. Under the Passport Express service, one can wait up to two months to get a passport. That is wrong. We have seen figures in regard to the significant number of applications made online in respect of which issues arose with regard to documentation. The postmaster goes through an application to make sure it is correct and so such applications should be dealt with and prioritised in the same way as applications made in other ways. Motor tax is a no-brainer in terms of roll-out across the post office network. When the tender for the driving licence service was issued a number of years back, An Post could not tender for it even though it has a network of offices across the country. The decision was made to set up approximately 60 new offices throughout the country to which people now have to travel 40 or 50 miles to complete the paperwork to apply for a driving licence. They are only a small number of the services that Government can provide.

The bedrock of An Post service provision is social protection payments. As I understand it, there has been a 12% decline in welfare payments by An Post and that is continuing on a downward spiral. Social protection payments are the foundation of the network. We will be in a very difficult situation in a very short period if that trend continues. Throughout Covid, the Department of Social Protection officials were contacting people and asking them to move their payments from the post office to the bank. That has to be called out.