Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)

The Government has a tendency to let the banks run the show when all they have done is put us in the glass coffin of recession. Perhaps the Government would be better served by concerning itself with actual bread and butter issues. The Department of Finance is providing for the introduction of basic payment accounts and has decided in its wisdom - we all know how the wise men in Merrion Street delivered us into the bank guarantee - to ignore the safe pair of hands and the option that people trust every day, the post office. Instead it has opted to pilot the basic payment accounts through those reliable and well-oiled machines, the banks. In effect it would seem that the 17% of people who do not have a bank account are being corralled into the banks while the State ignores the tried and trusted post office network which is in situ. At the same time the Department of Social Protection intends to move to 100% electronic payments for social welfare benefits and implement this strategy with none other than the banks again. I remind the Tánaiste of a well-known nugget of information, which is that most people do not trust their banks. The post office is a trusted part of our communities and can provide the basic account in a way that will provide the easiest access for everyone and continue to allow people to get their payments in their local post office. Post offices provide a significant social fabric. Put simply, the post office service is a perfect way to roll out this account. This would also help to ensure the continued operation of many rural post offices by growing the services that they can provide.

Can the Tánaiste explain why the post offices are not included in this pilot programme despite common logic pointing to their inclusion? Does he intend to include post offices in the rollout of basic payment accounts?

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