Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have raised this Topical Issue today because the Minister for Social Protection issued a letter to all pensioners over recent weeks encouraging them to have their money sent to their bank via direct debit rather than through post offices. This time last year, before the local elections, the then Minister, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, made an announcement that there was a whole-of-government approach to the future of post offices. In February this year, some nine or ten months later, it was announced there would be a review. What was said previously was only to get the Government over the local and European elections.

Whatever the election cycle, a letter has been issued from the Department of Social Protection to pensioners advising them or encouraging those who have been receiving payments for a long number of years to have their money paid by direct debit into the bank rather than through the post office. This is in direct contradiction of what the Taoiseach stated in the Dáil, what the Government has said and what the Minister has said to me on numerous occasions in the House. How come a Department sanctioned this letter, which is in total contradiction of what has been said by Ministers and the Taoiseach in the House? If the Department continues to pursue this policy, it will mean all the post offices in the country will close. The Department should examine how An Post needs to change to ensure the transaction can take place in post offices in the same way as it can in banks. It should be borne in mind that if the Minister for Social Protection continues to send letters to social welfare recipients encouraging them to use banks, it will be the end of the post office network.

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