Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)

The issue the Deputy raised regarding urban post offices and mail delivery is not a purely urban phenomenon. Unfortunately, we have interruptions in rural services as well. The Deputy might send me the details. While I do not have any role with An Post, I will certainly forward the details to the company. While the Deputy is not suggesting this, as I said in response to a previous question, An Post does not operate on the basis of sentiment. An awful lot of people are bemoaning the fact that post offices are closing. In many cases, they are closing because of the economic inviability. There could be 300 or 400 people turning up to a public meeting. How many of those people use the post office? Postmasters cannot be paid to hang out over a counter and keep people in chat. They have to make a living. Unless people go in and use a post office, the post office becomes unviable. That is not just a rural phenomenon; it is also an urban one. To echo what the Deputy said, we have a use-it-or-lose it policy. Unfortunately, in the reality that we are in at the moment with EU state aid rules, if people do not use their local post offices, then the post offices in many cases will close.

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