Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I support this motion. In the short time available I will concentrate first on the Sparkassenbanking model. Irish Rural Link held a seminar today in the RDS at which the president of the World Savings Bank spoke about some of the benefits, and they are real. It is a public savings bank model where, critically, the deposits raised in a region are lent in that region. It has a specific benefit in terms of lifting areas that are disadvantaged regionally. Second, in terms of the capability of such a banking system to specialise in small business lending, it is not lending by cash models but on the basis of knowledge of the business. It is also a model that has explicit training in that sort of professional lending system. This is a stable, professional banking model and it is perfectly suited for the development of rural Ireland. It also has a centralised service system that could be used to assist credit unions and post offices as that banking model is rolled out. I commend the inclusion of that issue in the motion. I commend the Government also in terms of carrying out the analysis it said it would do in the programme for Government such as the Sparkassenpublic banking model.

When it comes to An Post, we have to look at the entire postal system. It is not just the post offices that will be in difficulty. It is almost inevitable that within the next four or five years we will lose another 50% or so of the current mail business. We cannot ignore that. We have to plan for it and plan alternative businesses into which the postal network, in its entirety, can go. We have to give it a role in retail online mobile banking, transport and other services. That is why I agree with this motion which we as a party very much support.

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