Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is an important Bill. Anything that relates to the security of post offices is important. The post office sector has gone through quite a lot in recent years, with little Government aid or attention. I see the same in my village, Goleen, which lost the post office few months ago. Only two or three weeks after losing it, the now Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, who was a Minister at the time, turned up for a photo in the village and stood outside a post office which was on the verge of being closed. He showed no action in terms of saving it when he was there.

The bottom line is that it is not a viable business. People find themselves in a very serious situation. Unfortunately, the people in Durrus are finding themselves in the same crisis because there is an advertisement seeking a postmaster or postmistress to take over the post office. An Post is expecting too much. It needs to deliver a postal service in communities where there is nobody to take up that service until someone comes along. I congratulate Wendy Briscoe and present company in Schull who took over the running of the post office which was up for grabs at the same time as the Goleen one was closed.

The loss of a post office in a community is devastating. People tell me Goleen is now like a ghost village on Fridays. People move on to the next town, which is a sad fact we are facing. It is time to compensate people who are running these businesses because they will not be viable. An Opposition Deputy in west Cork put all sorts of things on Facebook about Goleen being a beautiful place to come and live. People cannot live on air. They must live on an income. That would make it viable to run a business, and unfortunately that was not the case in Goleen.

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