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

In fairness to An Post and postmasters, they have grown their businesses in recent years and continue to do so. If one looks at the withdrawal of banking services from many villages and towns, it appears that retail banking has gone out of fashion as far as the senior management and boards of banks are concerned. Post offices have stepped in. One of the things I have put to the Cabinet sub-committee is that the Irish Postmasters Union might productively explore an arrangement with the Irish League of Credit Unions to establish a basic or standard bank account.

I have had discussions with the Minister for Finance on this point and do not think we should exaggerate. The Government has no plans to close post offices. I have given the figures in the House before. Some 197 post offices were closed between 2006 and 2010. Since 2010, 17 have been closed. There is no intention on the part of the Government to wantonly close post offices, but there is a necessity for the House to have clarity on the role of An Post. I appreciate the immensely valuable role the post office network plays at village and community level, as the Deputy argues. The role of the postman or postwoman is far wider than just delivering the post. The mandate which has been given to An Post is that it is a commercial State company which brings with it certain realities at a time of e-substitution and when it has lost 30% of its core mail business in the past five years. These realities must be taken into account.

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