Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

That is 524 fewer than in 1997 and the number is falling. That is a massive drop. The number of company staffed branches has fallen from 97 to 84. We have lost 537 post offices since the Government came to office which is a major indictment of the Government.

Many European countries have adopted a specific strategy that sets a ratio of post offices to population that guarantees access for all citizens to a post office within a given number of kilometres from their home. Few of the European post office networks are capable of being self-financing or require support from their respective governments in some fashion, which they are getting. Some support is by way of direct subsidisation while in other cases it is merely by way of intermittent contributions to network modernisation. The bottom line is that they receive direct support. The absence of Government policy and the size and distribution of the network is the fundamental problem to be overcome before addressing the future of the network and how it should be secured.

I thank Deputy Durkan for raising this issue in Private Members' time because the post office is very much a part of all our lives. Likewise, the postmaster is an important individual in communities. With regard to the range of services operated from post offices, we should seriously examine making post offices tourism information points also. A new system of tourism information has been rolled out by Fáilte Ireland wherein all tourism points have been centralised under its control. Fáilte Ireland should investigate the possibility of using post offices.

I seek clarification from the Minister on one point. It appears the Department of Social and Family Affairs is encouraging people to have pension payments paid directly into bank accounts which would remove post offices from the equation. That is becoming the norm for social welfare payments. In itself, this will affect a significant number of post offices.

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