Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Regional Group of Independents for tabling this motion as well as Deputy O'Rourke for bringing the amendment. That we are again talking about the future of the post office network is testament to the continued refusal of the Department to support our post offices and to support rural areas and their local economies. At this stage it seems as though the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications is deliberately trying to put an end to the network.

Through the engagements I have had with the sector, I have been given the impression the resistance to supporting the sector through a public service obligation primarily lies with the Department. I say this because I have been told the Minster for Public Expenditure and Reform is far more amenable to the idea but a request for the €17 or €18 million must first come from the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications. That, unfortunately, is not happening. Why not? I have also been told the Department has told the IPU in no uncertain terms that no PSO will be given to our post offices. Will the Department tell me precisely if this is the case? If it is, why are there different aims being pursued within the Government? If it is not the case, will the Department confirm whether it is intent on allowing our post offices to fall by the wayside, and with them, the local economies they play their part in supporting? It is astonishing that the Government is allowing rural communities to become so bereft of services that people will have to travel further afield to get the services they need, increasing their carbon footprint and making rural Ireland redundant.

The post office network needs the financial supports through a PSO, and then it needs the additional services the Grant Thornton report and the Kerr report have both recommended. As these recommendations are being ignored, a short-term deal had to be done with the company for 18 months. The funding is below what Grant Thornton advises and means that within a year we will be back here again, making the case for our post offices and the communities the network serves. This is leading the people running our post offices to believe the Government's aim is to leave the network to die over time. The Minister and Ministers of State in this Department do not seem to get what makes rural economies tick. Rural transport is lacking and the horticultural sector is being asked by this Department and several others to source peat or its alternatives from abroad and is in crisis. Despite this the Government is just watching on. This entire Department really needs to decide where its priorities are. Is it to give rural Ireland and local economies the vibrancy they need, or is it to focus on urban renewal at the cost of our smaller communities?

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