Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Lip-service will not save our post office network. I listened intently as the Minister of State spoke about the Kerr implementation group. I was worried to learn that the implementation group has met just once since July. While the commitments in the programme for Government are grand, no progress has been made in this regard in the seven months that have passed since the programme was agreed. If one stands in any rural town or village on a Friday morning, one will see the social interaction that stems from the increased footfall into the local post office, which is the lifeblood of the town or village in question. If we allow this infrastructure to collapse, we will never be able to replace it. It would be like performing open-heart surgery on a rural village or small town. We would be taking the heart out of it.

The post office service must adapt to modern Ireland. Greater services should be provided at post offices. It took a long time to get the Department of Social Protection to bring an end to its policy of encouraging people to use banks rather than the post office network. Thankfully, that policy has stopped in recent months. As Deputy Brassil said, people have to play their part in this as well. We have to put the infrastructure in place, provide the services, adapt to modern living, let the post offices operate as banking institutions and move the model on. We have this great infrastructure in rural Ireland. Much has been said in this House about rural Ireland being attacked and neglected over a period. We have to move quickly to ensure this structure adapts to the needs of modern Ireland and survives.

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