Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It feels as if each summer, at least I think it is each summer, we reach the part of the Dáil session in which a motion to support post offices and keep them open is before the House. It has been a regular feature in the Dáil since I was elected to the House. Support for urban and rural post offices is shared across all parties and appears to unite all colours of political opinion. Every programme for Government states that it will support the urban and rural post offices. It is odd, therefore, that despite universal support, we are confronted yet again with a crisis in the network. Despite Fianna Fáil's and Fine Gael's support, post offices continue to close or to be threatened with closure even though we all know and eulogise the role they play in keeping local communities bound together. It seems we cannot save them. This is very odd. Everybody supports them and acknowledges the role they play and how vital they are to our communities. They are the centre and focus of communities, yet they continue to decline.

In 2016, when I was first elected to the Dáil, there were 1,100 post offices across the country. According to an Oireachtas committee, there are now 944. There have been many motions in the Dáil and all have been passed as far as I can recall. There were campaigns in counties Sligo and Kerry, west Limerick and parts of Dublin such as Rialto to keep local post offices open. Those local campaigners have been fighting for years to keep them. There have been many large campaigns because people understand the practical and social importance of the post office. Only last week, the post office in one of the oldest villages in Dublin closed. Chapelizod post office served a community that has a large ageing population, but hopefully in the next year it will have a new community in social housing that is to be built nearby, so this makes no sense. The postmistress was retiring, but looking for an alternative did not seem to be biting the bums of An Post management. The management is now saying that people who live in Chapelizod village and who need to access services must walk 1 km to Ballyfermot. There is no connecting bus service and the two areas are connected by a large, steep hill. That is not fair to older people, people with disabilities and young mothers with babies in prams.

I will repeat what I said in a debate on a previous motion in the Dáil. I contrast the efforts of campaigners and communities with the inaction and lethargy of the Government and the Ministers who are in charge and An Post. This closure programme is not inevitable, nor is it a natural phenomenon. It is the end result of a slavish devotion to neoliberal economics. The closure of 159 post offices in recent years was because they were not commercially viable as far as the management of An Post, the Government and the relevant Minister were concerned. The current threatened closure of perhaps another 200 post offices stems from the same logic and reasoning. I support the immediate payment of a PSO levy to keep the offices open and a replacement of the now-ended transformation payment, but that will not address the decline. When we discussed the previous rationalisation programme, we saw 150 post offices closed. The head of retail in An Post stated that up to 700 post offices were not commercially viable. There is an ongoing threat to An Post's contract for social welfare payments as this may or may not be put out to tender in the future. I do not accept that EU procurement rules make this inevitable. I believe such rules are repeatedly selectively used, largely for ideological reasons. That threat should end.

It is true that there have been and will continue to be changes in technology, along with commercial businesses moving away from smaller towns and social welfare clients switching to electronic money payments. It is also true that volumes of traditional post continue to decline. However, while some elements are outside our control, it does not follow that the end result is the mass closure of the post office network. Not every service or piece of infrastructure needs to be commercially viable to exist or survive. We do not demand that our primary or secondary schools are commercially viable or that health services are commercially viable. We choose what services and elements of our social and economic life we want to retain and nurture, regardless of commercial viability. If we believe it is important enough, and Members across the House believe this is important enough, we should save it.

We support this motion, as we supported all previous motions. We will continue to support the demand for a PSO levy by the State to keep these post offices open. However, I support the longer-term and wider aim of keeping and extending the network and seeing the post offices as hubs for local life in both rural and urban areas, which are not simply judged on their commercial viability. It is worth noting some of the statements from the Irish Postmasters' Union and revisiting some of the many reports produced over the years. The Irish Postmasters' Union commissioned a report from the consultants Grant Thornton. The consultants recommend that the State introduces an annual €17 million public service obligation payment. The report says that PSO funding models for post office networks have already been introduced in the UK, France, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Finland and Poland, all with the approval of the European Commission. Why does the Government not follow this model? The Minister should address that.

The report also states that the post office network remains a highly valuable national asset and contributes far more to the economy than the cost of the PSO. The annual social value of the post office network is from €334 million to €776 million. Some 28% of the population, a not insignificant 1.3 million people, continue to use the post office every week, including for the distribution of €4.6 billion in social welfare payments. It makes no sense to any Member of the House that this closure or run down of an essential public service, which is what it is, is continuing. An Post financial supports are unsustainable in anything but the short term.

It is essential to establish alternative funding options to maintain a sustainable future for the post office network and for postmasters. We support both the motion and the amendment from Sinn Féin.

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