Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to speak to the Bill. First, I convey my good wishes to the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Denis Naughten. I wish him a speedy recovery. It was an awful trauma for himself and his wife, but I believe he is making a good recovery. I hope the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, will pass on my good wishes.

I am appalled by this situation because in the negotiations on a programme for Government, 90% of which were attended by the Minister of State, rural post offices were a big issue. The rural Independent group, including Deputies Michael Collins, Noel Grealish, Danny Healy-Rae and Michael Healy-Rae, prioritised this issue because it is a very important one. What is the point in having a programme for Government if the Department is just going to decide unilaterally to increase the price of stamps drastically? It is easy to tell that there are not many business people on the Government side of the House. The proposal is to increase the price of a stamp from 72 cent to 95 cent or €1, which is an increase of almost 40%. As Deputy Danny Healy-Rae said, no business could sustain this. That is not good planning or good management. It is just a knee-jerk reaction.

The Kerr report on the rural post office network was published several years ago and there have been a number of other reports. As a previous speaker said, we had crocodile tears from the Labour Party and others in government in recent years. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, myself and others brought letters into this House that people received from the Department of Social Protection encouraging them to provide the Department with their bank details. The Department was actively taking away business from the post offices. I have to declare an interest because my sister is a postmistress. I have not spoken to her about the Bill before us but I know the social value of every postmistress and postmaster in the small rural post offices. They have given sterling service over the years. Rural posts offices have acted as community alert centres, interpretative centres and tourist offices. Postmasters and postmistresses would notice when a person did not turn up to collect his or her pension. Many times people who had collapsed in their homes were saved because the postmistress or postmaster noticed they had not turned up on Wednesday or Friday to collect their pension and raised the alarm. Post offices provide connectivity.

Recently the rural Independent group introduced a Private Member's Bill in the House. We put a lot of work into it. We had to find out who was the Minister with responsibility. That was the biggest difficulty. We thought it was the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment but then found out that it was the Minister of State at the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Michael Ring. We put an enormous amount of work into getting the Bill ready and received agreement from the Government that it would accept it. Members from all sides of the House spoke on the Bill, but where is it now? The Government has come up with this drastic action and our Bill is null and void. This House is reduced to a talking shop again. We need to see where the problem lies.

The Minister of State referred to various aspects of this issue. He said that the trend in An Post has been evident for some years but that it accelerated in 2016 with the company experiencing a doubling of the year-on-year decline in postal volumes, resulting in a serious financial impact. The Government's answer to this is to increase the price of stamps by 30% to 40%. Children in kindergarten or first class would not do that. As Deputy Danny Healy-Rae said, if he did that in his business he would close within a week. I am in business and I, too, would close in a week. No business could sustain it.

The Minister of State has pointed out that the mail business still accounts for almost two thirds of An Post's revenue and represents 78% of the company's payroll. That is fine and I salute the workers who do a good job. The Minister of State went on to say the company was entering a period of significant change to try to cope with the rapidly changing environment in which it operated.

In this regard, the company has started a fundamental review to identify necessary strategic changes in restructuring. This is jargon which was written by some of the Government's advisers or officials. It has been staring us in the face since before Fine Gael went into government six years ago and Fianna Fáil was in government before it. It is quite obvious to anyone with a nose on his or her face. The Government is looking in the wrong place, as it is on so many other issues. It is looking at the problem as being postmistresses and postmasters in small sub-post offices, but they only receive a tiny transaction fee for all they do. The Government is trying to take the business away from them and now it is stating it will increase prices which will kill it off altogether.

We have just finished a great year celebrating the 1916 Rising. I ask the Minister of State to look at the GPO because that is where the problem is. I have it on good authority that the problem is in headquarters. He should look at the costs incurred there and ask whether there are people who are not gainfully employed because of union and other sweet deals. It is there and in other big post offices where the money is being siphoned off. I do not want to deny anyone a job, but I do not and cannot condone what we have had in Cashel hospital for the past eight years where people have been paid to be idle. That is madness and it is not fair to the workers involved. The elephant in the room is on O'Connell Street, in the famous building in which we saw so much happen last year - the GPO. We should look no further than it. Both there and in some of the bigger post offices throughout the country there are huge costs, while others deliver the post in all weather conditions and on bad roads to distressed people. We are not looking at the main problem because of sweet and cosy deals and agreements done, perhaps not by the Government, but it is not acceptable. Union representatives can come here, as can postmasters, and whinge, cry, moan and groan, but let us be honest with ourselves and the people. We are in the middle of a deep recession and hope we are coming out of it, but we must weed out such practices. They are in certain parts of the public service, but there is no place for them in an Ireland that is struggling and recovering. We must look at where the problem is. We are awaiting the Kerr report and wondering when we will receive it. I am not saying Mr. Kerr is, but people are afraid to face the reality and look at the elephant in the room sa GPO agus in áiteanna eile. They went there for noble reasons at the time.

When our Bill was debated, I said "use it or lose it." I genuinely thought that when the Government accepted it, it would act on it in good faith, but it has not done so. This is not a solution but a knee-jerk reaction. It is like cutting off one's hand if one has a spot on top of one's finger. That is what it is. There will be a 30% to 40% increase in prices, but more and more business will be lost. Therefore, it does not make sense. Businesspeople are struggling and need services. They use postal services. There are people, including my children, who do not send anything by post. They use IT facilities, but this is damaging. We have seen it in the past 15 years; it is not today or yesterday that it has happpened, but this is a knee-jerk and desperate reaction, a desperate effort to avoid facing the real problem. It should be dealt with and the unions should be challenged. If I am wrong, I will come back and correct myself, but I do not think I am because this is what I have garnered and been told. I was not told by whistleblowers, but it is known and it is happening in other areas such as the HSE. It is not fair to those on the front line who struggle and suffer on a daily basis in doing an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. This issue should have been dealt with years ago.

I do not blame the Minister of State for all of this, but it is a cop-out and I cannot support it because I am a businessman and it would be totally against every vein of intuition in my body and business sense or nous I have to think prices could be increased by that much when the business is declining. They should be cut to try to increase business. We all had to cut our prices drastically in the past five or six years to hang on in. Some cuts were forced but more were agreed to. Anyone involved in business will state this, including shopkeepers, but the Government is out of touch. It is in a bubble, as was said earlier, but that bubble will burst very soon and the Government will up in smoke when it does.

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