Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion from the Rural Independent Group. The post office network should not just be protected but should be enhanced and expanded because it provides a vital service, like that provided by Garda stations, rural schools and shops. We have seen the decimation of rural villages, which I recognise as a Deputy representing rural constituency.

People in rural Ireland have heard their public representatives say they support the postal service but they also supported liberalisation through the EU directives that have threatened the post office network and the postal network. The problem has been exacerbated because, as we have seen in the past, Departments have moved services away from the post offices and encouraged people towards the banks instead of using the post office service.

We support the motion and think it is very important. There is broad agreement on this issue. The Government does not have a majority and obviously needs the support of Members in the House. Despite the negative comments by a former Minister who presided over the closure of 198 post offices, while we criticise the Government for many things, we recognise that at least a stab is being made at addressing this problem. Sinn Féin will hold the Government to account but we want to be constructive. The Government has brought forward proposals and we will look at them and give feedback on them. It is to be hoped that, working together, we can protect and enhance the services. Nothing was done in the past but a start is now being made. The ball must be grabbed and we must run with it.

There has been a lack of progress on the Bobby Kerr report. I read the timelines in the report, some of which are for six months and 12 months. The Minister of State mentioned some progress, which is welcome, but we need to move on. Last week, John Daly, the director of retail operations at An Post, warned the rural affairs committee that 700 post offices are not sustainable. The Minister of State is a rural Deputy like myself and he understands the importance of that. The Government needs to act quickly, as we all do, or there will be branch closures, which will result in communities losing services. In my own constituency, we have lost post offices at Ballacolla, Timahoe and Arless, and the remaining post offices, such as at Ballybrittas, Ballinakill and other small villages such as Kildangan in south Kildare, need to be protected.

Rural communities have lost many services and we cannot allow more services to go. The post office is a vital, core service. If we take a service out of the community, be it a small Garda station, a small school or a shop, if we take a part of the cluster, it is like taking a leg from under a stool in that it all topples over. We must try to cluster services and maintain those clusters.

There is a strong case to be made for the viability of the post office network, which has more than 1,100 branches. It is very important we enhance that. I understand post offices have to be made viable and, to do that, we have to increase the volume of business. The reinvigoration of the post office network can be achieved by extending services. I taxed my car in a post office in Scotland many years ago but we have never got around to doing that here. There are local government services that can be provided through local post offices. The Grant Thornton report and the Bobby Kerr report outline a range of options and there are also ideas from Members of this House.

The banks have stepped back from rural Ireland and have closed branches left, right and centre. They have also brought in the concept of staffless banking, which is driving some people up the wall. There is a vacuum but, given the banking sector has pulled back from providing face-to-face contact and from providing branches in towns and villages, this provides a big opportunity. We must push the whole operation of post offices towards this area. There is an opportunity which we must grasp. We must use computerisation and the roll-out of broadband to help improve services. We must improve viability and sustainability because post offices must be viable and sustainable into the future. We have a problem with the mobile services but some of the other ideas the Minister of State is putting forward are workable.

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