Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Apologies for being late. I welcome the two lots of speakers. I wish Mr. O'Hara all the best in his retirement and Mr. Martin the best in the future. It is a good model to have both An Post and the postmasters here because for years we have been talking to both and the two never seemed to add up.

I salute the postmasters and postmistresses and, indeed, the fir an phoist and mná an phoist throughout the country. The service they give is enormous and incalculable in its value to the community and social cohesion.

To take up what Mr. McRedmond was saying, in south Tipperary alone, the post office in Tipperary town recently divested into SuperValu. The office in Cashel is gone into SuperValu. Indeed, we have lost Ballingarry. We have lost Kilsheelan. We have lost countless of them, for instance, Clogheen. It is not viable for a business owner. Maybe it is fine for the big SuperValu because it has space. We have a shop in Clogheen where a man was very interested in taking over the postal service but An Post put too many restrictions on him. It was going to cost him too much and take up too much of his shop, and the security implications of it are massive. The amount of money post offices handle has been outlined. That is not fair for any young businessman. He is an excellent businessman in Clogheen. He was very interested. The community wanted him to keep it but he just could not financially and it would have had too much of an impact on his shop. An Post has too many expectations. An Post is closing offices by stealth. There is no question about it. Where someone puts up a hand and is interested in retaining a post office in a village, An Post has too much bureaucracy, red tape and expense. Mr. McRedmond cannot get away from that one. That is a fact. An Post is closing by stealth. We know the number there was when I came into the Dáil 18 years ago and the number that is there now. They are dwindling.

We have been talking forever about giving Government services but we do not get them. The Government is taking money away from the post offices and encouraging social welfare to be done online. That is happening all the time. I have raised letters in the Dáil Chamber with different taoisigh where people have been told to do that. We need to pony up here. They both need to go to the Government and the Government has to go and deal with them, not just pay lip service.

As for the IPU's ask for moneys, as Deputy Murphy said, you could not buy the value of the service post offices give for that and the amount of services that they are willing to offer. The twain do not seem to be able to meet. Mr. McRedmond might address my assertion that it is clear as day that they are closing by stealth.