Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On page 48 of the programme for Government there is section on protecting local services which specifically deals with post offices. Earlier this week the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Naughten, went to Ballymahon and announced a whole lot of things to help rural Ireland. Yesterday, I discovered that the post office in my area, Aughavas in County Leitrim, is going to be closed because the pub and business there has been sold and An Post is saying that it may not renew the contract to have a post office in that area. If the Government is making such efforts to invest in rural Ireland, one of the first things it should be doing is to ensure the services that exist in rural Ireland are not withdrawn. That is the basic principle of it. This post office has been in the community for more than 150 years and to think that at the drop of a hat it can just go. We have a similar situation in Ballygawley. Yesterday, I brought up the issue of the regional veterinary services being withdrawn and centralised to Dublin-----

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