Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to outline the position on this matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and Minister of State, Deputy Chambers.

An Post is a commercial State company with a mandate to act commercially and, as such, day-to-day operational matters, including decisions in relation to the size, distribution and future of the network, are matters for the board and management of the company and not ones in which the Minister, Deputy Ryan, has a statutory function. However both the Minister and Minister of State are very aware of the impact that decisions relating to changes in An Post operations have on communities and individuals in both rural and urban areas. The Department will engage with An Post to outline and highlight the concerns which have been raised by staff, customers and the wider community.

As the Deputy has outlined, in line with its ongoing transformation, An Post announced last week that it proposes converting six post offices from An Post-run to contractor-run, one of which is the Roscommon town office. Fewer than 40 post offices out of a total of over 900 across the State are now run directly by An Post. An Post has outlined that the change in business model of the six offices will not in any way change the range or extent of the services offered by An Post in those selected locations and the company remains committed to providing each area with the highest level of services for the future. An Post has advised that staff employed at the post offices in question will have options, including taking up the employment as new postmaster or being redeployed within the network.

The Government’s objectives for the An Post network include harnessing the opportunities presented by e-commerce and the digital economy and delivering a sustainable nationwide post office network at the heart of communities offering a range of e-commerce, financial and government services. The Government agreed that an amount of €10 million per annum will be provided by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications over a three-year fixed term from 2023 to 2025 to support the postmasters, with funding to be disbursed across the post office network. The funding is being paid monthly for each 12-month period. There has been over €9.7 million claimed by An Post for 2023 for the postmaster network. The programme for Government recognises that a modernised post office network will provide a better range of financial services and e-commerce services for citizens and enterprise, as part of our commitment to a sustainable nationwide post office network. The overall €30 million funding being provided to support a sustainable, nationwide post office network is in line with this commitment.

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