Martin Ferris (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Minister of State, Deputy Ring, for meeting Deputy John Brassil and me this morning. I found it very informative and helpful, and I sincerely appreciate it.

Listening to some of the commentary over the past half an hour, particularly that coming from Fianna Fáil, I can fully understand how the people have such a terrible view of the political establishment. I have never heard hypocrisy like I have heard here today. It is disgraceful. Fianna Fáil closed 198 post offices and it closed Garda stations and now its members attack the Minister of State for not moving fast enough.

The small shopkeepers, the creameries and the Garda stations are gone. Rural Ireland has been decimated by the hypocrisy of Fianna Fáil and the political establishment. I hope and believe that the Minister of State understands the value of rural post offices and the social consequences resulting from the terrible decisions of the past. If the post office disappears from a community, the small shop and the pub in the area will disappear as well. The first point of contact that isolated elderly people have on a weekly basis with their local post office will be gone.

I have considered the three proposals the Minister of State brought forward today. I share concerns regarding the mobile because I think it is an excuse but I am a great believer in co-operatives and share value. There is a lot of merit to those proposals. Deputy Stanley said that 700 post offices of 1,131 are not sustainable. How does the Minister of State define sustainability? I define it by value and service to the community not the monetary value. Sinn Féin is approaching this in a very honest way to try to resolve a terrible problem for rural Ireland and we will not be found wanting in that.

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