Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Any notion that the apparent direction of Government policy makes economic sense was comprehensively exploded by the Grant Thornton report. That report analysed Government policy in this area and pointed out there was a clear and imminent danger to the post office network, which is what has created the headlines in recent days.

Even if Government policy made financial sense, which patently it does not, then surely there is another dimension, namely, the social dimension. Life is not just about economics. The banks have closed branches in all our major towns because their focus is economics. Surely our focus has to include the social dimension.

As has been said, the post office network is a fundamental part of the social and community fabric of this country. It has contributed in no small measure to the stability we have as a society and a country. It is inescapable that the social welfare contract, and the NTMA contract to a lesser extent, are essential to the immediate survival of the post office network. The ambiguity and uncertainty created by the Government in regard to those two contracts does not engender confidence that it is genuinely committed to the future of the post office network. The Minister said that An Post has won the contract for a period of six years. It has not. It has won the contract for a period of two years, but what happens in two years time? There is total uncertainty.

The Department of Social Protection seems hell-bent on closing the post office network. It wants 75% of transactions to be electronic by 2017 regardless of whether the post office network can comply with that. More than that, certain sections of the Department of Social Protection have been writing to its customers, trying to bully them and force them to avail of the services of the banks and bypass the post office. While I do not have time to read the correspondence on that into the record, I can make it available to the Minister. I have brought this up on numerous occasions with the Minister for Social Protection and she shows not the slightest interest or inclination to do anything about it.

It is a peculiar situation where the Minister for Justice and Equality can call in the Garda Ombudsman, over whom he has no jurisdiction and who is answerable to Parliament, and demand answers, whereas the Minister for Social Protection cannot call in the people who are directly responsible to her - her own staff - and ask them why they are directly flouting Government policy.

If the programme for Government is policy, it is Government policy to protect and enhance the current post office network. I am frankly bemused as to why the Government is opposing this motion. It is written in black and white and is the last paragraph in the communications section of the programme for Government. All the motion is doing is asking the Government to implement a promise it solemnly made and entered into as one of the fundamental parts of its contract with the people. It is there in the programme for Government so let us get on with it and give the people of this country some sense of confidence that the Government is interested in helping them maintain their communities.

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