Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for choosing this Topical Issue today. I thank the Minister for coming in to respond.

We have had many discussions about the sustainability of the post office network over the past two years. It boils down to expanding the services the network can deliver. It effectively depends on the Government devolving more Government services to post offices and developing new services that are meaningful to the public and which people will find helpful when accessed through the post office network.

The post office network is a real national asset which the Government should support. Once a post office is lost to a community it will never be regained. The programme for a partnership Government commits to protecting the post office network. Even though it commits to supporting social welfare contracts, which are delivered via the post office network, the value of these contracts has fallen from €60 million to €51 million. If this trend continues, it will undermine the viability of many post offices.

Supporting the post office network will encourage people to avail of direct payments through their post office.

What is happening is that, on the one hand, the Government is encouraging people to have their payments and services supplied online and, on the other, it is proposing to support the post office network. As a result, one branch of Government is opposing the other and the network is being undermined as a result.

In its programme, the Government committed to a model of community banking. This has been discussed for the two years the Government has been in office but nothing has been brought forward in the context of delivering a community banking network. The Government also committed to identifying services that can be delivered through the network by means of a one-stop-shop model. The post office network should act as a facilitator for people who have difficulty applying for services online and it should help people ensure that they make accurate returns on their applications, which can lead to a speedier response.

In November 2016, the Rural Independent Group tabled a motion which recognised the vital role post offices play in the social and commercial fabric of communities. That motion was unanimously accepted by this House. The post office is often the last financial institution in a community and the loss of a post office will fatally damage the viability of a community as people move their business to larger centres. That motion committed the Government to look at the idea of post offices developing a community banking networks similar to the Kiwibank or Sparkassen models. These models have been very successful in their home countries, delivering meaningful services to the community, and the profits that are made by those community banks are ploughed back into communities rather than going to commercial enterprises.

The motion in question also committed the Government to protecting postmasters' income by providing extra services. The deal that has been offered to postmasters is a Hobson's choice in that they either continue on as they are - and, invariably, have their incomes reduced once they are reviewed because no additional services will be supplied by the post offices - or they have to accept an exit package that is very unattractive and that may leave some postmasters who have 30 years' service with just one year's income because the package will be taxed. The remaining option is to engage in a new contract which puts huge commitments on the postmaster but which may not be financially viable and which interferes with the post office tenure. It is very unattractive. They are being offered a Hobson's choice. I would like the Minister to respond on those issues.

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