Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Post offices play a vital social and economic role in our communities, especially in the regions and in villages and towns. There are substantial commitments in the programme for Government to protect and develop our post office network. Post offices represent the last commercial service remaining in many villages and small towns. These places have been deserted by the mainstream banks. Post offices are the last commercial or feasible entities in these small villages and towns. They are an essential part of community life and will not survive unless they are supported by Government. Those involved are not looking for a subsidy or subvention. They are seeking a transfer of Government business and the development of financial services. These are changes that the Government and a new banking system can offer.

AIB supplies limited services to post offices and these have been successful. These services demonstrate the potential for a banking system within our post office network.

The post office network should be viewed as a national resource. The loss of the network, which has been built up over many years, would be another unwinding of the fabric of our rural communities. It would accelerate the demise of our unique culture and society. Where would anyone get a network of 1,100 high street businesses? What Government would throw this network away through passive inaction? When the Taoiseach and the Minister for Social Protection talk about supporting the post office network, I get no sense of commitment or urgency from their body language or turn of phrase that would lead me to believe that they believe the service has a future and is worth saving.

One of the lessons of the most recent election was the need to recognise the views of people in the regions. These people took the view that they were forgotten and left out of Government policy. They believed they were unheard and that decisions made by Government were not sensitive to the precarious balance in many communities at present. That lesson should have been learnt following the last election.

Members from all parties come from areas where post offices are under threat. Like us, they understand that supporting the post office network is essential. During the negotiations on Government formation, the Independent Deputies expressed their views clearly about what needed to be done to sustain and support our peripheral regions. Indeed, several of the most vocal Independents are now part of the Government. We expect that what was promised in the programme for Government in respect of the post office network will be honoured. However, we see no willingness or urgency to act to fulfil the solemn commitments in the programme for Government. One of these commitments relates to enhancing post office activity in financial services to provide a new model of community banking along the lines of the models developed in New Zealand through Kiwibank or in Germany through Sparkasse. These models have been shown to work and have many advantages. In particular, the profits made from this banking system or systems are retained within the community. They do not go to the shareholders of the banks. They are retained in the community and are used for the good of that community.

The Government also proposed to make available many Government services through the post office network. The Government proposed that post offices should be a one-stop-shop or hub for Government services, supplying everything from passport applications to motor tax services to social welfare payments to bill payments as well as purchasing other Government services. Finally, the programme for Government promises to deliver a post office network renewal process to develop the infrastructure.

I hope the key objectives of this motion will have the unanimous agreement of the House. We need a clear pathway on how the Government intends to support post offices to give those involved certainty and security. This is also necessary to show that post offices have long-term feasibility. Postmasters who contract their services need to know that the businesses have long-term feasibility. These are the key objectives of the motion and I hope they secure the unanimous agreement of the House.

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