Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will give a bit of background to this issue. There was a public meeting in Greencastle about the fears of the community in regard to the closure of Greencastle post office. This has generated considerable debate locally and the local community will challenge any decision to permanently close the post office, which has been providing an invaluable service to the greater Greencastle area. An Post has not yet made a decision, so it is important to give it a bit of space. However, this House can feed in the views and concerns of the local community in regard to this service.

Obviously, the core-periphery argument can be made quite logically and comprehensively when one is trying to co-ordinate services in a more efficient way. Moville, which is over the road from Greencastle, became the focal point for areas like Lecamey, Carrowmenagh and Meenletterbale, where there had been existing postal services down the years. The argument was a logical one. The people in those communities would say that Moville is quite close. The next stop to the north is the island of Inishtrahull or the Hebrides in northern Scotland. The core-periphery argument is quite a succinct, good and logical one. If one looks at where Greencastle is on a map, as An Post will be doing, and if one draws a line to find the nearest place, one will see that it is in Northern Ireland, where a different postal service is in operation. It does not come into the equation.

It is easy to make the argument that Greencastle is a peripheral outreach of Moville. It is on the periphery near the Border. The reality is different, however. The ferry route between Magilligan and Greencastle is becoming the main transport corridor for a whole new tourism route between Donegal and the Titanic Centre in Belfast. This summer, large numbers of people used the new tourism corridor to visit parts of Donegal like Inishowen and Glenveagh National Park. Many people visit the Titanic Centre, which is the focal point of this new corridor, before going to see the Giant's Causeway and using the ferry to skip across into Donegal. A substantial number of people from Northern Ireland travel through the village of Greencastle. It is not necessarily a peripheral point. It is a main thoroughfare for many people who have holiday homes in Northern Ireland. It is a commercial centre. I do not need to remind Members that it is one of our main fishing ports. It is important to point out that many students attend the National Fisheries College is in Greencastle. I say this in support of the postal service in the Greencastle area. It is not just an outpost that is on the periphery. It serves an important function. The community has reacted in a positive way. Local people are willing to work with An Post to see whether additional measures can be implemented to provide for a more progressive service.

I would like to conclude by informing the Minister that as a result of the closures in places like Lecamey, Meenletterbale and Carrowmenagh, the people are queued out the door in Moville already, to put it in ordinary north Inishowen language. If there are capacity issues in Moville already, what will happen if the Greencastle facility closes down? I suggest that Moville will not have the capacity to cope. Such intricate aspects of the matter need to be looked at. I encourage the Minister, regardless of what is stated in the script he has in front of him, to do what he can to give An Post the latitude, the time and the space needed to make a comprehensive decision and not just a reactionary one.

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