Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have met the chairman, the chief executive and the board of An Post. As the Deputy may be aware, Mr. Christoph Mueller has decided to retire from the position of chairman.

We are now in the process of appointing a new chair of An Post, which will happen in the coming weeks. I look forward to the new chair being appointed and the opportunity I will undoubtedly then have to engage with him or her on these important issues.

There is ongoing contact between my officials and An Post on these questions. I reject any suggestion that the policy of either the Government or An Post is to let the post office network fizzle out, to use the phrase the Deputy used. There is no such approach, belief or policy. We cannot conjure up business for post offices; we have to work on it and have a plan to do it. We have to have the kind of expert advice and input that Mr. Bobby Kerr is bringing to the process. We have to have people's ideas and experiences. I look forward to hearing the Deputy's proposals and other proposals from across the House as to the practical steps we can take to allow An Post to attract business, which I have no doubt it can. I have huge confidence in An Post as being a terrific organisation with marvellous roots in communities throughout the country. However, we need to work in a systematic way to ensure business is brought into An Post both from the public sector and the private sector.

I am sure we all have the same interests here. I might be allowed to remark that it is a pity that four, five or six years ago the then Government did not anticipate the kinds of problems we are seeing now. I suggest it would have been possible to anticipate the change in consumer patterns and the manner in which people do business, both in rural and urban areas. It is a pity that some of this work was not done by the previous Government. At least we are now grappling with this issue in a systematic way. We have had very few post office closures compared with the period when the Deputies opposite were in government.

However, the key thing is for us all to work together in a practical and pragmatic way to attract activity into post offices. I am happy to say Mr. Bobby Kerr is leading that process. He gave us the interim report today and I look forward to the discussion on that interim report and then the final report in September.

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