Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak briefly on this motion. I would like to declare my own interest as a third-generation postmaster. I continue to run Ballynacargy post office in County Westmeath. I am an unashamedly strong supporter of the post office network. I know at first hand that the people who work in our post offices play a pivotal role in local communities. Every Member of this House knows that too. During this debate and the previous debates we have had on this issue, not one Deputy has had anything negative to say about the post office network and the role it plays in the communities it serves. The number of people in this House who have the direct influence to support that network is quite limited. I refer to the Deputies who are sitting across from me. The same people would have been able to influence the support of the network for the past five years but, unfortunately, they did not do so.

I compliment the Irish Postmasters Union on the work it has undertaken in bringing this issue to the fore in recent years. The representatives of Irish postmasters know they cannot stand still. They have made numerous suggestions to the Minister of State and his predecessors about how the services provided at post offices can be changed to put the post office network on a sustainable footing as we go forward. Unfortunately, those suggestions have not been taken on board. When the issuing of driving licences was being put out to tender, that tender was framed in a manner that prohibited post offices from putting in for it. The Department of Social Protection's conscious effort to make people change from receiving their payments in post offices to receiving them in their bank accounts was highlighted here on numerous occasions before the Department changed its forms.

A number of Deputies alluded to the Bobby Kerr report, which was published earlier this year. There is little point in asking someone to draw up a report if one is going to sit on one's hands and do nothing about the report when one gets it. We need to see a plan for the implementation of the recommendations in the Kerr report. This is a time-sensitive issue. We do not have any spare time on our hands. I would like to repeat a question that was asked before. Who is going to stand up and say "Stop"? If we do not stop the decimation of our rural services, there will be nothing left in our villages and communities. The previous Government closed rural schools and Garda stations. It took community welfare officers out of rural Ireland.

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