Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is Government policy that An Post remains a strong and viable company in a position to provide a high quality, nationwide postal service and maintain a nationwide customer-focused network of post offices in the community. The professionalism of the postmasters and An Post has served the network well down through the years and I do not see any reason this should not continue to be the case in the years ahead.

I met with members of the Irish Postmasters Union on 24 March and we had a useful and wide-ranging discussion on their concerns about the future of the post office network.

I have written to my Government colleagues, including the Department of Social Protection, to encourage them to consider what assistance their Departments might be able to give for the stimulation of new business for the post office network.

I had committed to taking the issue of the provision of additional public sector business to the Cabinet committee on social policy. The committee had its initial consideration of the paper put to it at its meeting on 28 April and agreed to my proposal for a whole-of-government review of the scope for putting additional public services in the post offices. This will be undertaken over the coming months with the aim of a final report, based on the responses made by Departments, being made to the Cabinet committee in September.

I see a strong future for the network by using its existing strengths to remain a significant player in the provision of Government, financial and other services. Securing the future viability of the post office network in the longer term will entail the network continuing to modernise, as it is doing, to provide the services that its customers require. Any such developments would need to be subject to competition and public procurement requirements as appropriate.

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