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

I welcome the opportunity to discuss the issue of post offices. I express my disappointment that a question I had tabled to the Minister earlier was disallowed for some technical reason. It should have been answered.

The interim report on post offices has just been released. Its authors have analysed all of the relevant issues. I wish to make a number of comments on the report. The Department of Social Protection has changed its policy such that forms sent from it are encouraging people not to uses post offices. The whole-of-government approach, from which this decision emanates, was announced prior to the European and local elections in 2014. Mr. Bobby Kerr took over stewardship of the review of the post office network in February this year. While I welcome the work he has done, surely if there is a whole-of-government approach, it cannot be right for the Department to distribute forms which suggest the post office network should not be the first port of call for the collection of social welfare payments. That is a very dangerous step. Social welfare payments and the fees payable thereon are the fundamental rock on which the post office network rests. It is totally unacceptable, therefore, for the Government to talk ad nauseamabout the importance of ensuring the future of the post office network while the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection is authorising her Department to undermine the network in such a shameful way. We had a Topical Issues debate on the post office network some time ago during which the Minister of State at the Department of Social Protection, Deputy Kevin Humphreys, said the aforementioned forms would not be sent, but that is far from the truth because they are now circulating.

The report makes reference to everyone having a post office within 5 km of his or her home and the fact that we should take this as a basic prerequisite for the future of the post office network. An Post must be obliged, through changes to its memorandum of understanding, to maintain the network as constituted. We have been talking for years about processing motor tax payments in post offices. Responsibility for processing driving licence application forms should have been given to post offices. All Departments should endeavour to increase the number of transactions completed through the post office network.

An Post operates savings and other financial accounts and handles large amounts of money. The main banks have left large tracts of rural Ireland without financial services. Much of the media debate has focused on the move to the digital age and the increased use of the Internet and the challenge this poses for the post office network. The network should be the point of contact between the State and local communities. We must examine in detail what financial services could be offered through the network and An Post should continue to process social welfare payments. It is not good enough for one arm of government to direct people towards banks. They should be able to access their money through An Post in the same way as they would in any bank. The report outlines the challenges that lie ahead. We are at a crossroads in the case of the post office network. We must decide as a people and a state that we are going to support post offices in tangible ways that will have a meaningful effect.

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