Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on Second Stage of the Bill. I welcome the Minister and I hope he is listening and will engage with all sides of the House before the Bill is rushed through or given a swift passage through the House.

This legislation proposes to open the Irish postal market to free competition. This may be regarded as a wonderful thing but, unfortunately, we have found out in recent times that it is not all it is made out to be. The result will be to undermine the current funding model for the universal service obligation of the Irish postal services. This is a fundamental tablet of stone that has been used by An Post and successive Governments since the foundation of the State. This is the mechanism that allows An Post to fund the loss making part of its service provision. This is critical for our society and our communities as it guarantees a five days a week delivery service to every address in the country at a single price. It is the backbone of the postal service.

With advances in technology, communications networks are changing drastically. There are more ways and options available for people to communicate, but this does not take away from the importance of the postal service which provides a door-to-door service to every household, at a reasonable cost. It also facilitates and further embodies the age-old practice of letter-writing. The art of letter-writing is a creative art in itself and is treasured by many people in both rural and urban Ireland. Many elderly people have learned that wonderful craft of letter-writing in school and enjoy writing letters and look forward to the postman whistling as he comes to the door.

The viability of this service is threatened by this Bill, as are 10,000 jobs in the sector. At a time when jobs are haemorrhaging at an alarming rate, if this Bill is passed, we will be accused of paying lip-service and of uttering pious platitudes and passionate pleas about stimulating growth and preserving jobs. It beggars belief that the Bill will have such a fundamental impact.

I have been lobbied not only by postmen and women and post mistresses and masters, but also by trade union representatives, who made solid cases. They asked us to look over our shoulders to our near neighbours in Britain. Evidence from across Europe, including Germany, the Netherlands and the UK, where liberalisation has already occurred, indicates that the opening of the postal market results in an erosion in service levels and job losses. It also results in social dumping. That is new jargon but we all know what it means. Decent jobs with reasonable pay and conditions will be replaced by low paid work. We have heard too much about that in the context of the recent unfair reduction to the minimum wage. In Germany, the temporary and precarious nature of postal jobs force employees to depend on social welfare for supplementary income. Employment standards in the industry must be protected.

The Bill must include a reference to recital 16 of the European postal directive, which states that social considerations should be taken into account when preparing to open postal markets. With the advent of the Celtic tiger, social considerations were put on the back burner. Recital 16 was specifically included in the directive to provide member states with an opportunity to legislate against negative outcomes.

An Post has never needed State aid or taxpayer support. The price of a stamp funds a service which delivers post to every door. Clearly, a significant amount of human labour is required from the time the stamp is fixed onto an envelope in a friendly post office until it is delivered locally, in some cases by bicycle. I compliment postmen and women on their work. As a small boy I remember the friendliness of my postman. That is still the case in rural Ireland and, I believe, in our towns. It was never needed more than during the recent cold spell, when the postman or woman was the only individual who regularly checked in on elderly and isolated people. In many cases, they were the ones who raised the alarm when they discovered somebody who was unwell or worse.

Postmen and women have also prevented crimes. I sit on the national board of Muintir na Tire, which runs the community alert and neighbourhood watch programmes. Many postmen went beyond the call of duty to act as the eyes and ears for their communities. They are not spies, however, but decent people who are mindful of who they meet in strange places and vehicles. They play an important role in ensuring the safety of our communities.

The efficient service which An Post operates is one of the least expensive in Europe, but it operates to some of the highest standards. Its prices are the eighth lowest out of 29 countries surveyed. These high standards must be protected. The employment conditions of postal workers who work in difficult conditions should not be undermined. I acknowledge the importance of postal services to the public good. They form an essential part of the fabric of our society and provide stable jobs that must be protected in the current economic conditions.

All post offices do a great job but sub-post offices face particular dangers because of the money which they carry on behalf of An Post and the State. Many have been violently robbed and they must operate to high standards of security. I have an intimate understanding of the risks they face because my own sister is a post mistress. There is no more important social role than that of postal worker. We have stripped away many social services but we cannot allow this one to be undermined or threatened in any way.

The Minister has good reason for introducing this Bill but it is badly thought out, ill-advised and must be re-examined. The experience across the water in the UK indicates the importance of downstream access. If this is handled badly, it could spell the end of An Post and 10,000 jobs. I am not scaremongering; I refer to the experience of our nearest neighbour. Opening up the service will lead to the cherry-picking of profitable routes. We saw what happened to Telecom Éireann. I have repeatedly argued in this House and elsewhere that the ESB should not be a monopoly but I am certainly not in favour of opening up services as we did with Eircom in 1999. A good friend of mine who is employed by that company was previously based in Clonmel but is now required to cover the entire south east. He would need a helicopter to travel and he is on call almost every second weekend. Eircom's employees work very diligently but local knowledge has been lost. The company has changed hands so many times that its employees would be hard pressed to know who owns it now. That cannot be allowed to happen to An Post.

I have no intention of voting for the Bill because it may do irreversible damage to the fabric of rural communities. We have seen the result of the loss of rural co-operatives. The meitheal spirit of the late Canon Hayes, which led to the creation of small and beautiful co-operatives, mushroomed into Glanbia and Dairygold, with the result that wastelands have been created in the centre of our towns and villages. Trucks are on the road 24-7 but the human way of life in rural Ireland has been undermined. The inclement weather restored the spirit of co-operation somewhat because people had time to check on each other or sit and talk because they could not drive along the roads. It was an act of God that brought us back 20 years to a time when we engaged with our neighbours.

Several years ago, we fought a huge battle over the proposal to install green boxes at the end of certain lanes. It may have been a cost cutting exercise but it was also a retrograde step. Postmen and women are often invited to have a cup of tea and a chat with lonely people. Sometimes they deliver or exchange newspapers. I hope I do not get anybody into trouble when I note that many postmen drove past the boxes to deliver post personally. It is part of the human nature of Irish people, who are diligent about their work and interested in human engagement.

Unfortunately, job losses and social dumping go hand in hand with liberalisation. We need look no further than Eircom for evidence of this. According to a comprehensive study undertaken by the UNI network, job losses occurred in nearly every postal market opened to competition. That first class research on countries which opted for liberalisation is there for anybody to examine.

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