Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague for giving me an opportunity to speak in this important debate. I wish to place on the record of the House that I have an interest in this area. I have been a postmaster in my constituency of Longford-Westmeath for the past eight years and am proud to be the fourth generation of a family that has provided a service in the community. Not only are we providing a service, we have been supported so well down through the years by people throughout the community we serve.

I am unashamedly supportive of the post office network and have first-hand knowledge of the pivotal role played by An Post and its network, particularly in rural Ireland. It plays a strong and pivotal role in urban Ireland but particularly so in rural Ireland. Only last Friday, I had occasion to spend a couple of hours in the post office and saw at first hand the number of people whose only outlet may be a weekly visit to the village to collect their old age pension, disability pension or carer's allowance and who then go on to support other businesses and commercial entities in the village in which the post office is located. It is not only about the post office but about supporting rural businesses as well.

The Department of Social Protection's tender will go out in September 2013 and there is a very real threat that the payment of social welfare payments will be removed from post offices and be paid electronically, which is why we are here today. If this was to happen, one would see a reduction in cash payments from 51% to 3%, which would make many of our post offices totally unviable. It would pull out one last major piece of service from rural Ireland. We have already seen Garda stations close. Only this week, we saw the effects of a reduction in Garda personnel resources. We have already seen bank branches close. This is not the responsibility of the Government but it is another service coming out of rural Ireland. We see a policy where the Government wants to force the amalgamation of rural schools.

Instead of just coming forward with platitudes, niceties and compliments about the good work done and the pivotal role played by the post office network, the Government should follow them up with real actions. It should accept that the Department of Social Protection's strategy of electronic payments will have detrimental consequences for the post office network. The Minister of State should be man enough and honest enough to come out and accept that. The Government should carry out a cost-benefit analysis before this issue goes to tender. This analysis should look not just at the economic costs but at the social costs to rural communities if these post offices were to close.

We have witnessed it. If one looks at the UK where many rural post offices closed, one can see that not only did the post offices close, small family groceries became unsustainable as a result. We need to look at that. At a time when there has never been such little confidence and trust in our banking institutions, this Government is trying to force more people into the banking institutions.

It must be acknowledged that An Post has carried out a great deal of work on examining how it can produce and offer alternative services. It commissioned a report from Grant Thornton to examine how it could expand the services it offers. This independent report showed that at a time when we want to bring about greater efficiencies and savings in the public service, if An Post was able to offer motor tax renewal it would save the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government €60.6 million a year. We should also examine An Post being eligible to offer other alternative services such as paying hospital fees. There is a myriad of services it could provide to ensure one of the most integral services in our communities is maintained.

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