Breeda Moynihan-Cronin (Kerry South, Labour)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important motion regarding the post office network and the future of postal services. As a representative of a mainly rural constituency, it is an issue close to my heart. This is not the first time we have discussed in this House the reduction in postal services in rural areas, but it is all the more pressing now given the ongoing phenomenon of the withdrawal of postal services from rural areas.

I have seen many instances of this in my constituency, but I will refer to just one example of the way in which a small community in west Kerry is suffering because of Government neglect and the unfortunate strategic thinking of An Post. Cloghane and Brandon are located at the northern end of the Dingle Peninsula and are part of the Gaeltacht. Until 2003, there was one post office in Cloghane and one in Brandon, providing local people with an efficient local service which included postal and social welfare payment services. In that year, however, An Post reduced the post office in Cloghane to agency status. This meant that the post office was incorporated into a grocery shop which provides only a basic postal service.

At the beginning of this year, the postmistress at the post office in Brandon retired and An Post decided to close that office also. An Post advertised in Brandon for someone to take on an agency post office but nobody was available. An article in today's edition of my local paper, The Kingdom, makes clear why nobody was willing to take this post. I advise the Minister of State to read that article.

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