Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I wish to share time with Deputy Barry Cowen.

I was struck by Deputy Buttimer's remarks that the An Post workers to whom he spoke were not overly worried about this Bill although they see challenges in it. I have heard the opposite. Many workers are concerned. Many Deputies have commented that we need to be very careful when considering the Bill and in the decisions we take, particularly on Committee Stage - whenever the Government gets around to establishing committees. The Second Stage debate allows us to reflect on the role of An Post and on the challenges it faces and perhaps the opportunities that can be vested in An Post to provide it with alternative income sources that may assist it as its mail volumes decrease.

I was struck listening to the contributions of Deputies Harrington, Healy Rae and Collins, all of whom worked with or on behalf of An Post in various guises. When one thinks of the postal service in Ireland, one thinks of trust, connection and a presence in every community, as has been said. These traits are lacking in many services and areas in Ireland at present. However, An Post has struggled to take commercial advantage and make commercial use of this.

Over the weekend we completed the census. Hundreds of enumerators were employed throughout the country and trained to complete the census process. They will collect the forms this week after which they will be laid off and sent back to the dole queues or their previous jobs. It struck me that An Post should have been given the opportunity to tender for that contract given that it has access into every home, business and community throughout the country and given that it is trusted. We would not have the expense we had training people if we had used the postmen - I will stick with the old variation if Deputy Healy Rae does not mind - for that service. We might have achieved it more quickly.

The Government has committed itself to substantial reform of many State organisations, including the HSE. The postal service could step into a gap in the community work of the HSE. It is a service with access into every house and it is trusted. Surely through some type of community monitoring of older people and those who are vulnerable it could take on a role done in a half-hearted and half-resourced way by the HSE.

Many people mentioned rural transport and aligned the challenges facing rural transport with those facing rural post offices. If we consider how An Post can access communities, with a little investment and imagination with regard to the postal transport fleet we can combine both services. As Deputy Healy Rae said, if this goes ahead helter-skelter and there is full liberalisation of the postal market, albeit even after 20 years, we know in our hearts that rural areas will be left waiting and there will not be next day delivery or next day access unless one travels to a main post office. When one considers postal systems throughout the world, it is amazing that in the US, where everything is done automatically, its postal system has not gone down this route. Surely in a small country such as this, where it has the values I mentioned, we should protect those values and seek to maximise them in other ways.

Many Members have referred to the move towards e-billing and use of the Internet. We do not know what is around the corner. Twenty years ago there was no such thing as the Internet and ten years ago nobody would have imagined we would be using it to the extent we do today. Given the progress of technology, the days of letters in the post are numbered. For that reason we must challenge An Post to examine its operations, move away from the comfort of being a sole monopoly provider in the traditional way and devise services it might be able to deliver for other State organisations, such as I have mentioned, or other commercial bodies. It must be more commercial in the way it delivers bulk mailing and more focused in the way it serves the business community in particular. It rose to the challenge when parcel post was liberalised and showed this could be done through Passport Express and the other services it offers.

It is a commercial model that needs change and updating and it is surely within the ability of its personnel to respond to the markets. With regard to the people who work in An Post, over the past ten days there have been a number of cases, ranging from a small case on the Mayo-Roscommon border to a large case in Kildare, where postal staff were terrorised in their homes. We should extend our thoughts to them and acknowledge that the presence of postal staff in communities, which is a major advantage to both An Post and the communities, is a challenge for them, particularly at present. Again, An Post has responsibilities in that regard, be they direct employees or agents. An Post cannot absolve itself of the responsibility to protect these people, particularly in these times and when rural gardaí are not as plentiful as they were previously.

Urgent clarification is required about the commitment in the programme for Government which states that the universal postal service provider will be in place for 20 years in view of the remarks last week by the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, that the duration of An Post's designation is something he will consider in the context of the programme for Government proposals. The programme for Government is only approximately one month old. Is this already rowing back on it or just a wrong communication? If An Post is to plan and invest in a postal service, the 20 year guarantee is required so it can come up with commercial models and streams of income that will make it relatively robust commercially when the full market is liberalised.

There are huge opportunities for An Post in the current economy. Consider how we are reorganising our banking system at present. The values I mentioned earlier of trust, connection and presence are still aligned with our postal service, although no longer with any of our banks. An Post has a savings wing. With a little creative thinking in the Department of Finance it should be possible to consider an alliance between An Post and the credit union movement or some type of co-operative banking system that will have the qualities I mentioned that are still part of An Post and the credit union movement. As we move towards the two-pillar banking system there would be some type of alternative available to people, regardless of where they live and their IT skills or access, with the backing of the Government through the An Post bond. This should be given urgent consideration and, again, if it is done properly, it will provide An Post with a commercial revenue that will allow it to sustain whatever challenges emerge in the liberalised market.

We have a fantastic asset in An Post, its personnel and its values. In dealing with this legislation we must be careful not to devalue that asset. This country does not have a good record with the privatisation of State companies, and we can all put our hands up in that regard. As the Bill moves to Committee Stage, we must be very protective of our postal service because it will be impossible to repair it.

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