Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The reply states it has been advertised twice, but An Post has yet to receive an application. I can only take the reply as it is.

To answer Deputy Michael Healy Rae on the issue of engagement with the Irish Postmasters Union - other Deputies mentioned a meeting with the Minister - I will relay the request to the Minister.

When I was listening to Deputy Gallagher, I thought of my own town of Newcastle West, where seven post offices were closed during the time another Government was in office and when the same issues arose. The Minister is the shareholder, as we all know in this House because the party opposite was in government once upon a time when waves of post offices were closed. The same issue was raised as to whether the Minister could intervene to keep open the post offices in Ballagh, Mountcollins, Tournafulla, Castlemahon and Feohanagh, as well as all of the other post offices in my part of the country that were closed. Deputy Michael Healy Rae is right that we need greater dialogue on the network of post offices between An Post, the Irish Postmasters Union and all of the stakeholders. We also all need to support post offices. We all have an obligation as people who want to keep services alive in rural areas to support them.

Deputy Pearse Doherty asked about a meeting with the Minister. I will relay that request for the Deputies from Donegal to meet the Minister, Deputy Bruton, on this issue. I note, however, that when post offices in my own area, like Tournafulla and Knockaderry, were closed people also asked if the Minister could intervene. They made representations to me at the time when I was councillor and Fine Gael was in opposition. We all know the reality that An Post is a commercial company with serious financial problems. It is on a path to trying to redress those problems.

Deputy Michael Healy-Rae is right, however. In support of the stakeholders, the Irish Postmasters Union, the service providers, the public, the Government and State agencies are working together. We have had this discussion in this Chamber before. One of An Post's greatest attributes is its ability to deliver parcels in future and to use the post office network to facilitate that. I am not a Minister of State in the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment but I will relay the concerns raised to the Minister, Deputy Bruton.

See this speech in context