Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. I am very concerned. I hope he will be like the previous Minister of State, who got rid of the script and spoke honestly. He knows, given where he comes from, that post offices are the vital lifeblood of rural Ireland. Deputy Healy-Rae tabled his topical debate at the same time as me and he is also very anxious about it.

I have two documents in my hand. One is the policy of the Department of Social Protection regarding post offices. It wants the majority of its transactions, bar 3%, done by electronic payment by 2015. The Taoiseach told Deputy Fleming and myself recently that this is not happening at all. He said so many post offices were closed under Fianna Fáil, while only 20 closed on his watch. That is not the real issue. The real issue is that the Department wants to have most of its business done by electronic means by 2015. That is only a few people out in the sticks who do not have broadband or anything else. There is a cat-and-mouse game going on here. I want the Minister of State to be honest and tell us what he is going to do about it.

We have nothing without post offices in rural Ireland. They are the last bastion. We have already lost the Garda stations and schools, and the post offices are vital. The post offices could do business through e-transactions if someone funded them. They have submitted proposals to the Department to be funded to do e-transactions. They could replace banks and other services that have been taken away from rural Ireland. It could do a great deal for tourism and the development of the rural economy. The former Minister, Mary Hanafin, in fairness to her, in the last Fianna Fáil Government ring-fenced social welfare payments. If this had not happened, the post offices would have been closed long ago. There would have been mass closures. The Taoiseach can play games all he likes but he is not telling the truth. He is telling the truth when he says that only 20 have closed, but if this policy is accepted, the game is over for post offices in rural Ireland. We want to get the ball on the pitch here. We want to play the ball fairly, openly and, above all, honestly, and deal with the situation because post offices are going to disappear before our eyes. That is not good enough and the Minister of State knows it from rural Ireland as well as I do.

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