Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I accept there is a social dimension, interaction, gossip and all the rest associated with the postman when he calls. I acknowledge all of that but the postman's job is to deliver the post, not to be a social worker or to collect the messages. If he can do all those things as well, that is a matter for the postal manager, but I have no objection. The postman is not a multi-tasker like Deputy Healy-Rae, he is a postman. This reminds me of a famous former Deputy from County Kerry who had a row with the postman. It was thought a bit odd in the post office that every day without fail there was a letter for a Kerry constituent who lived three miles up a hill in an isolated farmhouse. The postman had to cycle up the hill every day to deliver the letter. It was very odd that the man got a letter with the Dáil stamp on it every day of the week. When the matter was examined it turned out it was the TD's way of getting his own back on the postman by having him cycle in wind and rain three miles up the hill to deliver a letter every day of the week, and sometimes there was nothing in the envelope.

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