Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputies Ó Laoghaire, Buckley and Jonathan O'Brien. I welcome the motion from Solidarity-PBP in respect of the mail centre. I also welcome the fact that the Deputies proposing it will accept Sinn Féin's amendment. Here we are again discussing the closure of another piece of a vital network in terms of the postal services. A number of times, we have heard Ministers tell us in the House that the Government is committed to protecting the postal services. However, over 200 workers in Cork are being forced into redundancy with great losses to the community and the city of Cork. Despite all the talk, the decision has been made. Is the Minister going to stand idly by while the post office network is being run down? This is a blow for regional development. If any one of the four centres is closed, it will be a blow for whichever region is losing it. I find what has happened with the post office network over the past decade very disheartening. Between 2000 and 2010, we saw 732 post offices close their front doors. This is a direct contradiction of what Government policy should be. The process has continued and has done terrible damage. We do not view the post office network as a burden. We see it as key infrastructure that is vital to the economy. We want to see the establishment of a long-term vision for our network.

It is true that mail volumes are falling but we have known that for a long time.

We need more long-term planning and we need to diversify. An Post has gone from crisis to crisis for a number of years. While the position stabilised in the past two years, the company was in free-fall for five or six years before that. The vital planning for diversification and expansion of other services did not take place. We had the Kerr report and the McKinsey report. The post office infrastructure needs to offer new services. The use of parcels is increasing and this should be fully exploited.

The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton, represents the public and is the sole shareholder in An Post. As such, he is not a bystander in this process. It is important that everything possible is done to save these jobs.

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