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

I am entirely in agreement with Deputy Kitt about the affection with which the post office network is regarded, especially by small communities in provincial areas.

The problem for An Post is that it is a commercial State company, the core business of which has been diminishing at a fairly serious rate because traditional letter-writing has been replaced by electronic substitution and it and the postal network has had to develop and market new services. That is what it has been doing and, hopefully, we can accelerate that. It did win the social welfare contract. It is important to say that amidst all of the discussions and public meetings to which Deputy Kitt referred.

I take issue with one remark of Deputy Kitt when he stated that, as far as he can see, An Post would like to avoid customers going to the post office. That is not fair. Deputy Kitt is correct about An Post believing that more of its services will have to go online. The fact of the matter is that it is not merely an efficiency measure for An Post. A lot of customers want to be able to transact their business online. Customers who do not want that option or those who do not have basic digital literacy are entitled to do their business over the counter in the traditional way.

As I stated in the House previously, between 2006 and 2010 some 197 post offices closed, but since 2010 only 17 have closed. I visited the most unusual post office on Thursday last on Arranmore Island which, I am happy to say, is thriving, and I would not throw in the towel on Cappataggle, known for its production of hurlers, in south Galway. Caherlistrane, I must admit, I did not know about.

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