Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Michael Healy-Rae for raising this important issue. I can assure him that the Government is committed to the post office network and to continued use of it. People in receipt of regular weekly social welfare payments have a choice. They can either have their payments paid into their bank accounts or receive them at their post office.

I have issued a directive to staff to ensure they do not actively encourage anyone to go for a bank account over the post office and the Deputy has seen that. What the Deputy is referring to is something that occurred only in the first few weeks or around the time of the change of Government in respect of what are called casual jobseekers, that is, those who are in part-time employment who also receive jobseeker's allowance. In those cases, the Department no longer issues cheques and instead payments are made directly into accounts.

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