Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

I pay warm tribute to the postmen and women of Ireland, with the postmasters and postmistresses, as they enter their busiest season. One must remember that at this time every year, the post office renders outstanding service to the nation. Over the next three and a half weeks or so, it will deliver large volumes of mail to every household and business in the State. That is a really hard job, and we often find ourselves walking around parts of our constituency with postmen and women. I commend and salute them on the valuable work they do for the nation. I congratulate them and once again look forward to a very happy Christmas for our delivery and post office staff.

I also commend Deputy Durkan and Fine Gael on introducing a motion on the vitally important issue of the post office network. It is ironic that in April the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Dempsey, told delegates at the Irish Postmasters Union conference that the "government recognises the strong social function that the post office plays ... and it represents a link between the citizens and the state ... that should be maintained and strengthened".

If that is so, why is the network slowly being decimated? In practice, the Minister has overseen an unprecedented attack on the long-term sustainability and viability of the post office network. The number of post offices plummeted under the Minister and his predecessors, Deputy Dermot Ahern and former Deputy O'Rourke. The rate of closures is now so great that at one stage last year I calculated that there was one every ten days. This year that has risen to one every seven days and it approaches one every six days, a truly appalling record on the part of the outgoing Government on a key national service.

Even worse, it has evoked no response from the Minister, Deputy Dempsey, or his Government colleagues. Throughout his period in office as Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, he has prepared no national plan or strategic policy for the post office network but has allowed post offices to close right, left and centre from one end of Ireland to the other.

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