Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. The local post office is an integral part of our society and the community's social fabric. It offers an ever-widening range of services to the public. Post offices are much more than simply providers of postal services. In many cases the post office also provides a village shop and newsagent. It makes a far greater contribution to local communities than is recognised and it is a social centre now that the local pub has lost that value.

I wonder if our society is slowly becoming like battery chickens cooped up at home and not allowed out. The demise of the rural pub and post office means rural Ireland is disappearing quickly under our noses. Perhaps the next attack will be on places of worship, the last location where people can meet.

Post offices attract money into the local rural economy by providing customers with money to spend in shops. If a person receives money in a local post office, it is likely that person will spend the money in that post office. If a person receives the money in a large town, it is likely the person will spend the money there. That means a further drain on small shops and post offices, and many people are suffering.

The wide range of vital services for local and business customers includes cash deposits and withdrawals, stamps, parcel post, pensions and benefits collection and bill paying. Since 2001, the number of post offices has reduced from 1,750 to 1,350, a pattern which is continuing. We see it regularly and the most recent closure in Monaghan was in Rockcorry. It upsets the community greatly. Even if a village is expanding, with new houses being built, meaning is taken from the town by eliminating this service. It is the wrong policy.

An Post proposes to introduce agencies to sell stamps, provide pensions and welfare payments and give a reduced level of service. We should consider this again as a similar scenario evolved in Great Britain. That country made the courageous decision to support its rural post offices and it has the same type of community structure. It saw the value of keeping rural communities alive. We should take a leaf from that book and go forward in that direction.

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