Cathal Berry (Kildare South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to speak on this important topic of post offices in Ireland. I am also grateful to be here as a member of the Regional Group. As the Minister of State is most likely aware, my colleagues and I never come in here to trade insults with the Government of the day. Rather, we come in here to trade ideas and exchange potential solutions to address the problems of our time. It is on that basis and in that spirit this motion has been brought back before the House, nine months after it was first discussed.

I am grateful for the Minister of State's opening comments. They were detailed and more detailed than expected. I am also appreciative of the fact the Government will support this motion today. It is very encouraging. I also welcome the fact the Minister of State mentioned there will be an €8.5 million fund established between An Post and the Irish Postmasters Union, which should go some way towards alleviating some of the issues, and the fact a one-stop shop feasibility group has been established since March. I encourage the Minister of State to expedite the findings of that group, if possible.

It is worth asking the question, nine months after it was first discussed, if this motion is still relevant. I contend it absolutely is. It is more relevant now than it was back in October of last year, because a number of events have occurred. First, we have had two new additional waves of Covid-19 which have wrought devastation on the Irish economy and society. Second, we have had the publication of the Government's strategy on rural Ireland, Our Rural Future, which commits the Government to supporting rural Ireland. Third, there has been a significant shift of people moving from our large cities to settle in regional, rural and coastal Ireland, which is a good thing.

It is important people take full advantage of the fact they can live and work in rural and regional Ireland and take advantage of reducing their carbon footprint, cost of living and increasing their quality of life. That is a good thing for the people who move and the people who stay in our large cities because they will be dealing with less congestion and gridlock. That is something the Government should not only encourage, but support and facilitate by ensuring we have the requisite public services in these new communities to support the new communities moving in.

Of all the events of the past nine months, the events of the past week are possibly the most pertinent of all, when it comes to discussing this motion. It is to do with the fact that now, in the past week, the Government and, by extension, the State have entered into a commercial arrangement with privately operated and independently owned retailers throughout the country. I am referring to the deal between the State and the pharmacy network in this country to turbocharge our vaccination roll-out process. It is working really effectively at present.

This is precisely the model the Regional Group is proposing from the post offices' point of view. Instead of applying just to the pharmacies, we could apply a similar concept to the post office as well. That is very important. I commend the Government on leveraging and piggybacking on the existing pharmacy network. Why would it not do such a thing? The pharmacies have the premises and people in place, they understand their communities and the communities trust them. That concept is very good and should equally apply to the post offices.

My colleagues have spoken eloquently on how we need to establish the post office network as a one-stop shop and an offline gateway of choice. I certainly agree with those views, especially from a motor taxation point of view. I note the Minister of State's comments with regard to the services already taking place from post office point of view, but motor tax is the next step we should look at. Not only will it reduce the number of excuses a person can use for not displaying a proper motor tax certificate on his or her windscreen, but it will free up many local authority staff to focus more on the strategic and long-term planning for the local communities and counties.

In the time remaining, I want to focus on the provision of financial services at a community level. Over the past nine months, there has been a major change in the footprint of retail banks in regional, rural and coastal Ireland. KBC Bank is moving out, Ulster Bank is leaving and Bank of Ireland is significantly reducing its branch network throughout the country. It is up to the Government and the State to step into that void and vacuum and ensure there are sufficient financial services branches available throughout regional and rural Ireland, especially for our SME sector and the age demographic which is not as mobile as others, namely, our elderly population who rely extensively on having a branch in their local towns.

I welcome this motion and encourage the Minister of State to accept it, as she already has. I also encourage her to look at the pharmacy model which is working effectively at present and apply it not only to the pharmacies but also the post offices. We always knew this motion would work in theory and, looking at the pharmacy concept, we have proof it will work in practice also.

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