Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for taking this Topical Issue. I had hoped that the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications would be present and, therefore, I hope that the Minister of State will bring back any questions that we raise here, and those of the people of Tipperary town.

Last Thursday, we received an email from An Post to say that it was changing Tipperary post office to a contractor-run post office. I was shocked and so was the town of Tipperary. A meeting took place that evening with staff and the worry then started spreading about what was going to happen with the post office. I am opposed to this move and so are most of the people of Tipperary town for a number of reasons that I will outline.

The first issue is the location of the post office. Its current location is more or less the centre of the town. After getting the notification, myself, Councillors Tony Black and Anne Marie Ryan made inquiries. I want to thank Mr. Angus Laverty for being forthcoming with us. The trouble is he could not give us a guarantee that the post office was going to remain in its current location. After six months there is a possibility that the post office will be moved. It is a huge concern locally that the post office will be moved and I will explain why. In the past fortnight a number of small businesses have closed in Tipperary town because of a lack of footfall. The town centre has also lost the court services, which is another issue that I want to raise. The book is not closed on this matter as far as we are concerned.

The town has a huge level of deprivation. Indeed, that led to the establishment of a task force on social inclusion whose research found that one in every three households in Tipperary town does not own a car so there are significant implications for access to services. This is the highest figure recorded out of all the settlement areas in County Tipperary. Coupled with that is the high rate of people over the age of 65. We all know that this cohort of people uses post offices more than anybody else. That indicates to us, for that cohort of people, that all services must be kept as close to the centre of town as possible. If An Post's plans do go ahead, it is vital that the post office service is located in the centre of town because it will bring additional footfall to the surrounding local businesses. I hope we do not see any more businesses close down. Tipperary has suffered due to a lack of a bypass, which is an issue that has dragged on for more than 40 years. Promises were made by different Governments down through years.

Myself and others cannot understand if a revitalisation task force was set up to try and improve Tipperary town that another part of the Government is taking services away, or threatening to take services away. I put this to An Post and was told that this was just part of the ongoing conversion programme and it appears suitable for a town to have such a change thrust upon it. This matter does not seem to have been considered. We have the same issue in my own town of Cashel and there is talk of the post office being moved, something on which we want to get clarification.

An Post has told us that it needs a post office in Tipperary town but it cannot guarantee us that if this does not work with the postmaster, or if the company does go in and 12 months or two years down the road, it decides it is not viable. We want guarantees from the Government, which controls the post office network, that if An Post does that, the Government or the company will step back in and run the service in Tipperary town in a central location.

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