Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the motion and commend the Deputies for bringing it before the House. I am glad that there will be all party support for this motion. That sends a very clear signal.

In the past two weeks I have been facilitating public meetings in my parish, Gweedore, where the post office network in Dunlewey, a strong Gaeltacht area and a very rural one, is out for public consultation because the postmistress, who has given lengthy service to the community, is retiring at the end of the year. Tonight’s debate will send a very clear signal to An Post which is, that a decision should be made before the end of next week to the effect that we want a five-year holding plan to ensure that the network will remain both in place and viable and that we will have adequate time to discuss the various options. At the meeting I facilitated between the community and An Post on Monday, the passion of the residents for their community and its services was very clear from their recounted experience and testimony. This is a small rural community and the post office is crucial for the people who access its services and obtain their pensions there. I witnessed the closure of the post offices in Gweedore, Magheroarty and many other places, all on Fianna Fáil's watch. The threatened closure of Bunbeg's post office was averted and I was glad that we were able to do that. We facilitated community engagement in respect of that and in other areas. I hope we have stemmed the tide of post office closures.

Before this debate I reread a report I compiled on behalf of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Arts, Sport, Tourism, Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs in 2008 when I was a Senator. One of the sections in it related to the future of the post office network. I recognised that unless we moved forward we would not have a network in the future. The report was debated in the Seanad. Deputy Ó Cuív was the Minister responsible. We drew from international experience, in California, Essex and Leeds, of integration with council and financial services and making post offices part of an enterprise hub. That was what was required. Unfortunately, the Government response was to close down almost 200 post offices. The same type of solution is being put forward in the Kerr report. I hope there will be positive solutions to maintain this network. An Post has to hear very clearly as we decide on this matter that no post offices should be closed until adequate time is given to see the solutions the Oireachtas provides.

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