Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Healy for putting forward this motion and I congratulate the members of the Technical Group who have joined together to present this motion to the House.

It calls on the Government to maintain the post office network and sets out viable steps, with clear timeframes, for how this can be achieved. The motion is backed by the Irish Postmasters' Union.

It is the responsibility of the Government to realise a long-term plan for the future of the postal service. That responsibility is acknowledged in the programme for Government and reiterated in the joint Oireachtas committee report on the future of the postal service. Despite this, we are presented tonight with an amendment that has a Pontius Pilate quality to it, with the Government effectively washing its hands of its obligation to do anything to save the post office network. There has been a 15% decline in the network since 2006. The revenue from mail continues to decrease, with a 25% reduction in the past five years. However, the post office is about more than mail services and it is not good enough merely to fall back on the excuse of competition and public procurement issues, as the Government does in its amendment. The local post office is at the heart of communities across the country. It offers a vital connection and source of human contact for elderly people, those dependent on social welfare and others.

The potential closure of local post offices is an issue that has featured regularly in Topical Issue debates in this House in recent years. Colleagues and I have focused on the status of particular post offices and sought to protect individual communities. These include communities like Bunbeg in Donegal whose post office is currently under threat, and communities like Greencastle and Inishowen whose post offices have been given a stay of execution for 12 months. The real problem is that the Minister, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, and his Cabinet colleagues do not recognise the value of An Post and of a service that is important to every community in the country. The Minister is saying he is limited by competition and public procurement requirements. In fact, those concerns are not as restricting as he claims. He can choose to use social clauses, as provided for under European legislation and used extensively throughout Europe, in France, Greece, Spain, Germany and Italy. The inclusion of such clauses in public tendering contracts means the successful contractor must meet certain social requirements. An Post is ideally placed to satisfy that type of social obligation if the Minister would only choose to deploy such clauses. The problem is that he has chosen not to do so. That is the problem underlying his amendment and it is the underlying problem with Government policy on postal services.

The roll-out of the standard bank account represents another missed opportunity for the Government to safeguard and enhance the viability of rural post offices. At least two years on from the formation of a working group and in the wake of last year's pilot project, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, stated the following in his reply to a parliamentary question last week on the roll-out of the standard payment account:

The report of the working group on the pilot project noted the view of stakeholders that one of the key elements required as part of the preparations for a successful national roll-out of a standard bank account is greater involvement by An Post...  This was seen as necessary to have the best possible channel for reaching the target cohorts.

Instead of commencing the roll-out of the basic bank account on 1 January, as promised, the Department of Finance has entered into bilateral discussions with stakeholders in order to determine the next steps following the pilot project. There has been no decision to include An Post in the roll-out, a move which would go a long way to making post offices viable into the future.

The failure to take decisive action in regard to social clauses and the roll-out of the standard bank account is killing post offices throughout the State. If the Minister is serious about preventing the closure of post offices, he must take action on these fronts without delay, instead of bringing forward an amendment that includes no timescales and no commitments and simply refers to what other Departments need to do. That is not a response to the motion. It speaks of alaissez-faireattitude and an intention on the part of the Government to continue, like Pontius Pilate, washing its hands of its responsibilities regarding the future of post offices in this country.

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