Martin Ferris (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae and I met representatives of the Irish Postmasters Union, IPU, on the crisis in the network of rural post offices. The Government has been speaking on both sides of its mouth to the effect that there is no policy directive on social welfare payments being paid out in rural post offices. Rural post offices tell us, however, that social welfare officers are asking recipients to open bank accounts in order that payments can be paid directly into them. That removes a viable aspect of rural post offices. When they lose a transaction, they do not lose that alone; they lose five or six transactions on the back of one. The only thing that will keep rural post offices alive and continue to survive is if they have enough transactions. Part of that is that the Government should make transactions available to post offices, whether online or otherwise, in order that they can remain viable and continue in our communities.

Two motions were passed on this issue in the Dáil, one on 16 November, in which Deputy Michael Healy-Rae was involved, and another in September 2018 tabled by Sinn Féin. Those are sitting on the shelf and have progressed nowhere. Why is that? Why does the Government not respond and implement motions passed here? A large part of those motions was to ensure that post offices would have encouragement and support for a community banking service. A community banking service has helped the survival of post offices in New Zealand and other places where it has been allowed to develop, but it is necessary that the State support community banking services so that post offices can survive and be viable into the future.

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