Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I, too, am very disappointed. I welcome the reappointment of Deputy Canney as a Minister of State and I wish him well in his post. It is, however, an insult that the Minister, Deputy Bruton, is not here. There is insult after insult. Newcastle Save Our Post Office committee sent its appeal by registered post on 26 September 2018. It expected and was led to believe that it would have a decision within 28 days. A committee member contacted An Post on 21 October 2018 because they still had not received any news about their appeal. The committee was informed that it was with an independent assessor. Independent my eye.

As Deputy Gallagher said, this is a box-ticking exercise. The appeal was a comprehensive one. I salute the committee. After a huge public meeting in Newcastle, the committee substantially tackled and addressed each item listed in the protocol with supporting maps, photographs, letters and almost 1,000 signatures from the small village I represent in south Tipperary and the Waterford border. The appeal itself was seven pages long. The so-called independent assessor did not have the manners to contact the committee, acknowledge it or even to ring.

We found out this morning that a local councillor got a letter. The committee itself has got no letter yet stating that its appeal was turned down. This is outrageous. The Minister of State is back in power. I ask him to go back to his senior Minister and tell him to put manners on these An Post officials and the so-called independent assessor. The committee worked very hard to put together a substantial appeal and the committee members are answerable to the community through a public meeting. It was a public process which was engaged in and the committee has nothing to tell them. The committee has not even got a letter.

Kilmeaden post office in Waterford got it today as well. The closure was part of a dirty filthy agreement reached between the Irish Postmasters Union, IPU, and An Post. It was just another aspect of the unembarrassed contempt for rural Ireland that the Government, which the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, chose to join again, has for the people of rural Ireland. In April 2018, the IPU hyped up the outcome of the negotiations with An Post as an outcome that was, allegedly, all about maintaining the delivery of local post office services throughout the State.

The Minister of State is losing his own constituency and he knows it. Today we know those words were meaningless. The people are not cared about. The so-called agreement included a €50 million investment package to fund the post office network and negotiated redundancy settlements, and it was sold as snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Where is the victory for our post office? People have been told to travel 7 km to Ardfinnan. What happens if they do not have a car or if they are not able to drive? There is no taxi service and there is no bus service. This is an insult to rural Ireland. Rural proofing my backside. There is no such thing as rural proofing here.

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