Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, and with no disrespect to the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, I am very disappointed that the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton, could not present himself to this House tonight. He normally takes pride in the fact that he always takes his own Topical Issue matters but there may be a genuine excuse. Had I known that, I would have requested this for another day.

In my county of Donegal, 17 post offices are either closing or due to close. This is a result of a protocol presented to the Government by An Post, and the Government accepted that protocol. It related to post offices in areas with a population of less than 500. They are not a population. They are rural settlements. It was a deceitful way to have done this. There was no commercial analysis, no economic analysis and no rural proofing. It is fine for the people of Dublin to be 2 km from a post office but what about the people of rural Ireland?

People will have to walk or cycle or perhaps use public transport, if it is available. I refer to 15 km. The people of rural Ireland, and particularly the people of my county, have been conned by this Government. I came in here with others and we voted unanimously on an amendment to provide a public service obligation, PSO, for those rural areas. What has the Government done? It has ignored it. Together with colleagues, I went to public meetings around the constituency. Committees were selected. Days and hours were spent preparing submissions. For whom were those submissions? They were submissions to reviewers appointed by An Post. What other decision would we expect from those reviewers?

I know the name of one. I am not questioning their integrity but I believe it was only a box-ticking exercise. As I said earlier, it was a deceitful way of dealing with the people of rural Ireland. I went to the GPO, together with my colleagues, Deputies Pearse Doherty and Pringle, with bags full of submissions. We might as well have put a match to them in the middle of O'Connell Street because they had no effect whatsoever. It is not good enough that An Post and the Government have not accepted the will of this House and a unanimous decision by this House. The Government has totally ignored it. We are not prepared to accept this and it has conned the people of rural Ireland.

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