Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Will the Minister be straight with the House? I am not suggesting that the Minister is not normally but I think he could on this occasion. He speaks about the money and what it will do. There is a series of events that will have to take place, and the provision of ten digital gateways on a pilot basis will not use up €30 million. The Minister should come clean and talk about the cost reduction that will assist An Post into the future. He should explain what cost reduction really means, which is redundancies. This is not about improving services or coming up with innovative ways of driving people into post offices. A financial slide rule is being placed across the books of An Post and this is about eliminating people, cutting jobs and reducing access to the services of the post office. It is about making the organisation leaner and fitter to continue doing what it is doing but in fewer areas. We get the continuation of the five day universal obligation on the postal side. That is a given. There is nothing in this for people who depend on post offices in rural areas. It is quite the contrary, notwithstanding the glossy language on the periphery of the kernel of this.

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