Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I would like to respond to the Minister on the question of the post office network losing custom to e-business. That is true. There is no doubt that when one looks at one's letter box, one sees how much less is coming in. However, what the Minister has just said is like saying "I will split your head and give you a plaster" because at the same time as we acknowledge that e-business is taking over the actual post business, the Department of Social Protection has removed the option of payment of cheques through post offices. There is an insistence by many Government Departments that payments to them are made by bank draft rather than, as happened in the past, giving people the option of using a post office draft. Therefore, on the one hand, we are trying to keep the post offices viable and, on the other, Government Departments are removing business from them. Where is the progress on the recommendations made in the care model for a new model of community banking? When I lived in Germany there was a community bank called Sparkasse through which all workers got paid, regardless of where they lived. It had branches in every village, every town and every corner, and ordinary people used them all the time. They were basically a developed form of post office. Where is the investigation into bringing that kind of viability to An Post which would actually work and retain the post offices, both rural and urban?

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