Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this issue. I congratulate the Rural Independent Group on bringing forward this motion. As those from rural areas in particular will know, and given we were discussing mental health in the House only yesterday, many people go to a post office on a Friday who may not have spoken to someone all week. The post office is an avenue to having someone to talk to, to have a chat with and to catch up on what is going on around the area. It is very important in that way.

I reiterate the point made by many previous speakers that people need to use it. I have heard people talking and talking about the post office but they then put their accounts through the bank. That is no good to the post office network.

I welcome some of what the Minister of State has said today. We have the ball in our hand because he who pays the piper calls the tune. We are giving a big social welfare contract to An Post and we should be able to call the tune for the people throughout rural Ireland. It should not be An Post dictating what will close and what will not close. New initiatives need to be found, as everyone agrees, including in regard to driving licences and the different aspects Members have spoken about. Throughout the country, more and more deliveries are made by courier but a postmaster is not allowed to take in those deliveries. An Post needs to cop on, given some of the stuff it is at, and give post offices more freedom to work the services.

I agree wholeheartedly with the suggestions on public banking. The credit unions and the post offices need to join up. Every Department needs to have joined-up thinking on this. At the moment, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is telling people in rural Ireland who do not have broadband or a computer, many of whom do not even know how to drive the computer, if they had one, that they have to go online next year for their single farm payment or their areas of natural constraint payment. That is not the way to protect post offices or the way to ensure more postage goes through the post office to protect it.

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