Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)

I congratulate in his absence Deputy Harrington, my neighbour from across the border, on his maiden speech and I wish him well.

I declare an interest in this legislation, which is very close to my heart, because I am the postmaster of a small rural post office. I very much welcome this debate and thank the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, for hosting it this evening because it is very important. I have reservations about the Bill, bearing in mind that the mail volume has fallen by a massive 16% since the start of 2009, with each 1% drop accounting for a loss of €5 million. As traditional letter-writing dies out and customers turn to e-billing, An Post has indicated it will have to cut staff by more than 400 by the end of the year.

The postal service is not just any old business that is being knocked to one side because of the Internet or modern technology; it is a service for the public good. Post offices unite communities and the postal service connects remote regions to the centre.

In the context of the future common agricultural policy and stimulating rural areas, it is necessary to increase the attractiveness of rural areas by ensuring access to various public services and infrastructure such as education, health, broadband, the Internet, transport and postal services. Over the years, our rural countryside has declined greatly in that we have lost small shops, pubs have been decimated and local creameries are gone. A way of life in rural Ireland is being destroyed. We are losing a lot of what made this country so special. People came from all over the world to see what we had, which was something different. It was something that one would not see in other parts of Europe or in the United States. We had a very special way of living in Ireland and I believe our postal service and local post offices were a cornerstone of this. This is why this issue is so important and it has to be dealt with in a very serious fashion in the House. I very much welcome the contributions made by speakers on both sides of the House.

Maintaining services in rural areas will be difficult. However, we must strive to do so. As we look at the falling demand for postal services should we be scared of private operators coming into the market? We should. The unions in An Post have some concerns about this also. There is the argument that the private sector companies which would be looking to enter will be in it purely for profit and will not be concerned about providing a social service or its importance. We are speaking about services to the community. Competition in this area will weaken rural services. There is no provision to protect people against the cherry picking that will take place. Often, there is no Garda presence in rural areas. In a local town, there may be a little button on a door one can push to speak to a machine to seek a garda.

This legislation will result in a weakening of the personal contact which many people living in isolated rural areas depend on in terms of the social fabric. I do not like this aspect of the legislation. It could be detrimental to a way of life. The historical base of our postal service under the universal service obligation is important in that it obliges the State services to deliver and collect mail for the same price regardless of location. This is akin to the provision of social bus services in the rural countryside. I accept there is a shifting pattern, as the previous speaker outlined, and that more and more people use electronic communications. It may well be that the postal service needs to reassess itself as Deputy Buttimer suggested.

An Post and, more importantly the post men and women, are not merely delivery people. In the vast amount of cases in the rural countryside they may be the only human contact some of our isolated citizens have. Some elderly people living in the countryside look forward to seeing the postman coming into the yard with a letter for a bit of gossip and a chat and to see whether anybody is dead or whether there is any news in the parish. It is the man or lady in the post van who brings this news. Post persons act as social workers. They are a vital link in any community and they are the connection between isolated people and the rest of the community. I want to put on the record of the House that I salute these people, many of whom long ago did large runs on bicycles including in bad weather. In the cities, it is normal to see people on bicycles but long ago in the countryside it was how the mail was delivered in many cases, and delivering the mail involved very long and tough runs up and down hills in all types of weather. I salute the people who are gone to their eternal reward who delivered the post in Ireland and those who do so at present and I thank them for the work they do.

In areas where there is no Garda presence, as I already outlined, post men and women are the eyes and ears of the community. We must be very mindful of the excellent service provided by An Post and its postal workers throughout the country. We must ensure that no decision will be made in this House that would jeopardise this service. I respectfully say to the Minister, the Government and all Deputies that there is a great onus of responsibility on us and we must tread very carefully with this Bill. We must be mindful that decisions taken here could have a detrimental effect.

However, if we do our job properly we may hope that An Post will be able to continue to provide the excellent service it has provided over the years. I look forward to seeing and ensuring that those post people who have done so well in the past for the citizens of Ireland will be allowed to continue to do so in the future and that we will not have big multinational companies coming in and profiteering, cherry-picking and leaving the countryside with a service for perhaps one, two or three days a week. If a letter arrives for a person in the countryside he or she wants it on the day it arrives; he or she does not want to think about it resting somewhere to be delivered after a number of days. That would not be good enough. We must always remember that people in rural Ireland are every bit as entitled to the same quality of service as a person living in Ballsbridge. As I have always said, whether it is Ballsbridge or Ballinskelligs, the people are equal and they are entitled to the same level of service.

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