Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Seamus Healy for proposing this important and timely motion. The post office service is at the heart of our community services with a long history of hundreds of years. I remind the House of the importance of the service in ensuring our very survival, given the remittances that kept this country afloat for generations.

The post office organisation has been capable of change and it has met challenges through the centuries, most recently with the advent of electronic communications.

The Minister's press release stated that the Government has no plans to close post offices. What I want to hear is what plan has he to keep them open. That is the more pertinent question. The Minister announced that the post office network will encompass central and local government and he has promised a Cabinet committee will examine social policy. He announced that the examination will be holistic, "to look at the range of services which could be provided by the post office network and could perhaps yield synergies among the various agencies." This is not a very definitive statement and the Minister is very good at crafting fine words but I think people will be looking for more than those words; they will want to know how he will make that happen.

I ask if the Minister has been in a bank recently. Nowadays, banks only want virtual customers; they do not want real people walking around and they do not want old-age pensioners standing there, who are perhaps a little bit slower than they were earlier in their lives and they need a little bit more time to make a transaction. They are not linked to the Internet. They want to interact with a human being. The post office provides a very real human service which is delivered in a very personal way.

I agree it is positive to consider new ways for post offices to deliver additional services. However, the Department of Social Protection is a critical component of the service because it pays out child benefit, pensions and welfare payments through the post office network. The Department of Social Protection has cut back hugely on the community welfare office services and these services are now more remote from people. The closures may have cut the cost for the Department but we all know that it transfers that cost from the State onto the individual at a time when he or she most needs help. The Department of Social Protection must be part of the solution in ensuring the viability of the post office network.

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