Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not believe it will come as any shock to the Minister of State, given that we have had this conversation earlier, that we support this. It is caught in one term: "sustainability". We all know the benefits provided by the post office network and the network's absolute necessity, particularly in rural communities that have lost many of their hubs. We welcome the fact that we are talking about the €10 million but it is a matter of ensuring it makes it exactly to where it needs to go. It is a matter of a fair break-up for the postmasters.

We have to commend the work done by a number of the stakeholders, particularly the Irish Postmasters Union. As I said previously, they put their money where their mouths are. We had the Grant Thornton report on what was necessary for sustainability. If anyone needed a lesson on the necessity of the post office network, that was provided during the Covid pandemic. We are all aware of the huge impact of the closure of a post office on a community. Therefore, it is all about sustainability.

I welcome that we were able to deal with the issues regarding state aid.

Other issues have been dealt with in the House regarding Coillte. We need to be able to bring about a similar solution there, whereby the likes of Coillte can be able to draw down money itself and does not necessarily need the help - for the want of a better term - of the likes of Gresham House. I imagine it is a particular help that Gresham House will do better from in the long run. Anyway, I digress, which I tend to do from time to time.

This is highly positive. It is an absolute necessity but whether we are talking about driver licences and everything right through from social protection to passports, perhaps we can look at those State services that can be provided within post offices. Again, we have heard from An Post and we have heard from the Irish Postmasters' Union previously about the need to look at the tendering process and to take into account the social dividend provided by the post office and the post office network. We need to be able to allow them to tender in a fair and equitable way. That is something we need to bring about. There is an obvious gain in this from the State's point of view. We all like the idea of the green digital hub where people can come to access necessary services, where they may be more comfortable going to the post office to access these services than they would be in other places.

Across the summer we had AIB and the possibility of the mass closures of a huge number of banking services across all our pillar banks. It is a fight that needs to be had. We need to ensure we maintain a necessary number of banks. Outside of that, there are financial services that can be provided, and are being provided at this point in time. A greater number of them can be provided by our post office network. This is my point. If we can get these services, then we can have a post office network that is making far more money and, in deriving that money it would, eventually, not need the state aid. We could get to that sustainable point in time. Obviously, it also means that from a business point of view, we make the post office a far more saleable entity than it is, unfortunately, for a considerable number of people out there who are under pressure. The reason we have so many in operation at this point is down to the commitment of a lot of postmasters in their communities. This is why we have this necessary legislation in front of us. It is something we need to do but long term we need to ensure we can make them more sustainable. The idea is that they would provide services and would be paid a fair price for the services, and this would facilitate everybody.

It is fair to say that I have an issue with the An Post proposal for a 10 cent increase in the price of a stamp. There has already been an increase in the cost of postage over the past year. My fear, and it is a fear the Irish Postmasters' Union, IPU, has put in the public domain also, is that we do not need an even smaller number of people to utilise the absolutely necessary postage system. Many people of a particular age not only have a certain grá for it, but sometimes they have a certain need for it too. It is the way they deal with State services and with other necessary services. It is a way that we can make sure people get informed of certain things. We do not need to put added costs onto other State agencies, and we do not need to pass costs onto individuals, and we certainly do not need to be putting pressure on businesses at a time like this.

We are all aware that things have changed in that area as there are multiple means of communication now that were not available years ago. Due to online purchasing, and whatever else, there is a completely different structure around the delivery of packages and so on. In this context there have been certain gains and certain losses for the post office network. First and foremost we are in support of this legislation. We need to ensure that it happens as quickly as possible and that the money goes to where it needs to go, and that it ensures we maintain the post office network we have at this point in time.

This does not fall just within the Minister of State's remit. There has been a huge amount of engagement on this, and especially at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications, from the point of view of ensuring that post offices are able to offer multiple services, and that some of these would be State services. The post offices could offer the service and get paid for it and we could have a more sustainable post office network, and we would be all the better for it.

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