Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the principle behind the amendments. We discussed these issues on Committee Stage. An Post should continue to be enshrined in the Act as the named service provider for a number of reasons, including fraud. As I noted on Committee Stage, I suspect that if an analysis were done of fraud, it would show there is much less fraud associated with the sub-post office network than the other payment mechanisms the Department has introduced. Perhaps the Minister has figures that will confirm my view.

Last year, in response to a parliamentary question, the Minister stated that control measures had achieved savings of €632 million through the identification of fraud, client error, departmental error and refunds from estates. This is a significant sum, especially as people must dig deep to fund the social welfare system through the universal social charge, property tax, income tax, increased VAT rates and, from next year onwards, water charges. This is how the system is bankrolled.

On the one hand, we have in place an extensive national network of sub-post offices while, on the other, An Post continues to squeeze local post offices. A case in point is the post office in Cappataggle in my constituency where, at a large meeting last Monday night, the local community expressed serious anger about the potential loss of its post office, particularly as a family member of the previous postmistress is willing to take over the business.

One cannot look at the sub-post office network in isolation. In many communities, it is maintaining the community as a whole. It is maintaining some other business, whether it be a shop or a petrol pump. In many cases, it is the only premises left in the village as everything else has closed.

The Minister will come back and provide reassurance stating that, as part of the contract, there is a condition that the service provider must be able to provide a service to 95% of the population within a 15 km radius. As I pointed out to her, that would involve a 19 mile round trip which would be significant for many, particularly the elderly in isolated rural areas. It could be a much greater distance if the local sub-post office closed, with residents having to travel multiples of that distance. In that context, it is important to remember we are talking about a country where one third of pensioners live on their own, many of them in isolated rural situations. Many of them have little contact with any form of civilisation from one end of the week to the other, except for the local postmistress whom they visit in the post office to collect their pension.

The Minister is trying to provide us with reassurance about 95% coverage. After the committee meeting, I thought that sounded familiar. It was bugging me all week. Then I realised it is the same story that is trotted out in relation to broadband, that 95% of the population is covered by broadband. The difficulty is that one has better broadband coverage on the moon than one has in some parts of Ireland. Is the Minister saying that such is the type of service she wants in place for the collection of social welfare payments through the post office network? I would remind her that a large number of these payments - probably the biggest cash payment made - are social assistance payments. These are payments that are made to those who cannot make ends meet from one end of the week to the other without this basic payment from the Department of Social Protection and who have to eat into that basic payment to pay for the taxi to go to collect their money.

The Minister's party colleague, Deputy Brendan Ryan, put forward an alternative on Committee Stage and she dismissed it on the basis that An Post is written into the statutory instrument. The Minister might think that some members of the Government parties will swallow that hook, line and sinker, but she will not pull the wool over our eyes on this side of the House. As she knows well, a statutory instrument can be changed at the stroke of a pen, laid before the House and become law overnight. An Post can be taken out of the statutory instrument at the whim of the Minister or a future Minister at some future date. I presume Deputy Burton will not be in this Department too much longer and while I have a lot of time for her and respect her, I would not necessarily trust some of the other suspects who might end up in this Department after her.

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