Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)

Deputy Broughan would be the first to jump up and down in this House if I, as Minister, started interfering with the appointment of anybody in An Post, even a postman. I am sure he would be highly irate about that. Questions of appointment, management and so on are matters for the board of An Post, not the Minister. It is important that it should be so.

I agree that the industrial relations climate in An Post is poisonous. Unlike Deputy Broughan, however, I do not attribute this to one side or the other. Such an approach will not solve any of the problems. I am the guardian of neither the workers nor the management of An Post.

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