Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I note the Government's amendment. Its content and the speeches by the Ministers of State clearly acknowledge that nothing new has happened to support the post office network since I left office. I was one of the very few Deputies to make a submission to the Kerr report. I remind Members that I was presented with a situation in 2016 in which the collapse of An Post was about to happen within 18 weeks. The decisions I took have led to a position where that company is profitable. Every Member on the Opposition benches talks about the importance of the post office network but, other than me, every party and Member who went into government forgot about that network. That said, the Government has, on foot of the motion, outlined its commitment to put more business through the network, including the provision of offline government services. We will give it the opportunity to fulfil that objective, despite the fact that there was no Cabinet representative present throughout the debate. However, I put the Government on notice that if there is no movement within the next six months, we will revisit this issue.

Local post offices must become the one-stop-shop for all government services, not only to minimise the risk relating to Covid-19 but also to ensure that the 950-office network does not collapse. Since the emergence of Covid-19 last March, access to many government services has been restricted for those who do not want to, or cannot, use the digital options. The post offices have remained open throughout the pandemic. There must be direct intervention by the Government to develop new State services for the post office network, in line with the previous commitment given to use the network as the offline option for all government services, and to pay a fee of €17 million for this service, as outlined in the Grant Thornton report. While we hear that we must learn to live with Covid-19, there has been a failure to deliver alternative ways to engage with government services other than by trying to force people to go online. This does not work for everyone. Some 55% of people aged between 65 and 74 years have never used the Internet, locking them out of those services. Furthermore, 9% of the population in Ireland does not yet have Internet access, while 11% have never accessed the Internet. One in six of the adult population cannot read and understand the instructions on the back of a box of paracetamol due to literacy issues.

By the end of last year, 79% of people paid their motor tax online, which means that 21%, one in five people, still use the offline option. That is just for motor tax, so consider how many people need other offline facilities. One cannot renew one's motor tax online unless one has an email address. This condition will be expanded across all online payments when the EU payments services directive 2 is implemented at the end of this year, 72 days hence. Surely older people and those who are currently offline have enough to contend with due to Covid-19 and Brexit without being excluded from government services because they do not have an email address or cannot use technology. While online transactions are going to get more complicated, the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland and Safeguarding Ireland are calling on older people to take back and keep control of their money, particularly vulnerable people. Two thirds of people who needed help from others to manage their money during the Covid-19 lockdown have not taken back control of their finances. This will get worse as the Covid restrictions outlined by the Government are implemented and Government office opening hours are restricted.

Vulnerable people and those who do not wish to, or cannot, use technology or email would be able to maintain their independence if these services were available through the local post office. This would save the taxpayer a considerable amount of money as the staff involved in these mundane, administrative paper processes could be redeployed into urgently needed contact tracing.

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It would also eliminate the costly paper-based notices and transactions that I previously outlined in a case study I published on property tax. We need decisive action to support rural communities, vulnerable people and the vital post office network.

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