Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am well aware of the situation An Post was in two or three years ago. Members from all across the Chamber supported a number of measures in this House to try and retrieve the situation. An Post got a financial injection from the Government to modernise. The protection of the post office network is within the terms of the partnership Government. That is fine but what is happening here flies in the face of that. The Government has said that it wants to protect small and medium-sized rural towns and yet, in action, the Government is doing the very opposite and tearing the heart out of them.

The Department of Rural and Community Development and other Departments are engaged in town and village renewable schemes in the centres of towns, putting down nice paving and all of that, while at the same time vital parts of the cluster of businesses needed to retain and maintain a town centre are being pulled out. The Minister should know that the post office network is a vital component of the cluster of businesses in rural towns and villages. Pulling out the post office would have the same effect as pulling out one leg from underneath a stool. The stool will keel over. That is likely to happen to our towns and villages. This will have a detrimental effect on the hearts of towns such as Mountmellick and Thurles.

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