Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Brian Stanley on bringing forward this motion, which I urge the House to support. The Minister, Deputy Naughten, and the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, both surprisingly said that it is important to remember that when a post office closes 70% of the business transfers to a neighbouring office, but the knock-on effect of a post office closure is that 100% of that service is lost in the community. It simply does not make sense.

The 2011 census of population found that 40% of lone pensioner households in rural areas did not own or have use of a car. Closing local post offices for the sake of trying to save a few euro while forcing people to travel where there was virtually no public transport is a very cheap trick.

We are talking about 159 post offices. One such closure is one too many. Twelve post offices are to close in County Cork, the knock-on effect of which will be that 34 towns and villages in those areas will be directly affected. I find it ironic that the nearest post office for those living in Rockchapel in County Cork will be in Brosna in County Kerry. That is very strategic planning. It must be extremely frustrating for our elderly and disabled throughout the country.

This affects the people in rural areas but, in terms of the service a post office provides, in one's post office one talks to one's postmaster or postmistress. They help one with filling out forms. That is gone. Paying €5 off the ESB or any other bill is now gone. We are losing services.

Another issue is rural isolation. The post office was probably the last remaining local hub because the Garda station and the pub are gone and now the post offices and shops will possibly be gone. For some people living in rural areas, the post office might be the only point of one-to-one human contact they might have once a week, if they are lucky, or once a month. One does not realise the detrimental knock-on effect in terms of what will happen rurally when this service, which is a public service, ceases. The Minister mentioned earlier that one post office made nine social welfare payments. It does not matter how many it made. It was providing public services. That is what post office are supposed to provide.

The Minister is closing down rural Ireland and I can tell him that the loneliness experienced by older people and those who are disabled can kill. He should remember that.

See this speech in context