Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is responsible for the delivery of that service in towns such as Castlepollard.

The Minister goes on to say people can travel down the road to Mullingar. The Minister may not be aware that in many regional rural towns there are difficulties with public transport. There are definitely difficulties with private transport currently for many people on lower incomes given the price of fuel as well.

Let me tell the Minister that the closure of this service has had an enormous impact on spend. It was nearly a Freudian slip from the Minister in relation to the effect of spend in the town. When you have a full-time service such as this one, it brings people in and when they are in the town of Castlepollard, they go about their daily business.

Castlepollard Local Development group has made numerous efforts to reach out to the Minister and ask her to talk to it about the future of this office to see whether the group can provide a location for it. There is the former Bank of Ireland location there, which has been turned into beautiful new offices, which would make a wonderful location for this and which would have the effect of revitalising Castlepollard. I would urge the Minister to meet with the Castlepollard Local Development group.

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