Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to raise this important issue for the town of Mountmellick. On Friday last at 3.22 p.m. I received an email from An Post confirming that it had moved the post office and that it was sending me the notice that it had already issued to the local media. This is an awful way to treat members of the public and their elected representatives. The post office was in this location for 114 years. It is a large and substantial premises in the town centre. There are other large and substantial premises, supermarkets and big shops in the immediate vicinity and my real question is whether these were all examined before the decision was taken to move the post office to an out-of-town supermarket.

Day in and day out we hear that the Government has a policy in respect of towns and villages and maintaining town centres. It is not just one arm of the Government doing one thing and the other arm doing something else. The same arm of the Government is doing both and it is effectively speaking out of both sides of its mouth when it gives a commitment to protecting main streets and town centres and then states that it is providing substantial funding to An Post to invest in out-of-town shopping centres or supermarkets and locate post offices there.

An Post is 100% State-owned. This is the people's money being invested in moving a post office to a new premises. I want to know if a detailed examination was carried out and whether other premises were considered. Was the current premises examined for expansion? As I have stated, it is a substantial property. Were other locations in the town considered or was there a quick arrangement arrived at out of convenience?

An Post has been planning for this for some time. I walked the length of the entire main street and other streets of Mountmellick on Monday and the number of premises that are closed is extraordinary. Premises that used to be home to vibrant businesses are closed and we find that the one premises owned, run and provided for by the taxpayer is moving out of the town centre due to Government policy. The Minister can wash his hands and state that it is nothing to do with him but he sets the policy for An Post, which then implements it.

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