Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to raise this issue. I thank the office of the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, for responding to me to say he cannot be here because he is in a committee. However, I am not at all happy that none of the other two Ministers of State in the Department of communications could come into the House to respond to this matter.

We are facing the potential closure of the post office on The Square in Roscommon town, following the decision by An Post to tender the services out to a contractor. This is the first instance where An Post is attempting to downgrade the status of one of its post offices in a county town. While this will come as a blow to the dedicated staff in the post office, there is also a risk that the new contractor will no longer use the existing building, which could see the service moved elsewhere in the town, potentially outside the town centre.

This is after nearly €15 million of Government investment under the urban regeneration and development fund and associated funds, which have been primarily focused on the town centre in Roscommon. While I have been reassured by An Post that there is no threat to the existing services provided, the loss of a State-owned service in the county town will impede the potential expansion of services in the longer term.

It should also be noted that even in An Post's darkest hour, when the company was within a number of weeks of financial collapse in 2017, it was never contemplated that the company would dispose of any of its 50 hub post offices that it owned around the country. These were seen at that time as strategic premises. If that was so, why is it not so today with the company on a healthy financial trajectory? Its 2022 accounts indicate that earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and repayments are up 15% year on year to €18.6 million.

During my term as Minister, I developed a strategy with An Post to protect it from financial collapse and to use the An Post-owned post office network such as the one in Roscommon town as a focal point for the development of banking services and other Government services. This would have resulted in an expansion of the range of services in Roscommon post office as well as the use of additional space in the building for new State-supported services. This included redesigning Roscommon post office as a one-stop shop for all Government services for those who did not wish to use online services, including motor tax, driving licences and passports. Roscommon post office was also to be expanded to develop a community banking service to provide an alternative to the existing banks and to support the development of banking services in our smaller sub-post offices throughout County Roscommon. Key to the plan was the retention of the ownership and control of the existing An Post post offices in the 50 locations around the country, including Roscommon town.

Sadly these plans were not fulfilled by Government and it now seems that An Post is set to relinquish direct control of such services, which is likely to undermine the future plans for such services in Roscommon town. As the Minister of State knows, in the intervening years I have strongly advocated for the delivery of new Government services through the post office network but this has failed to materialise. I have also strongly advocated for the establishment of a State bank incorporating the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund and the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland to offer low interest rates to support both businesses and communities. Such a bank could also provide green finance to homeowners, landlords and businesses to invest in a sustainable future.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The difficulty is that Roscommon town will be the only county town in Ireland without an An Post-owned post office if this measure goes ahead. Disappointingly, the type of support that is needed for An Post to develop its own post office network with new services has not been forthcoming to date from the Government, despite a Cabinet commitment to deliver that. This is at least in part resulting in the threat to the status of this post office in Roscommon town and, in fact, the transition of the ownership of all of these iconic buildings and their services into private control. All of the public representatives from every party and none are at one when it comes to our call for An Post to abandon its plan to alter the status of post offices that it owns in our county towns and in particular in Roscommon town. We want to see the post office in Roscommon town retained in its current location and with its current ownership and operation, and in fact see the building expanded and refurbished to meet the growing needs of the local community and to mirror the significant public funds that have already been invested in Roscommon town by this Government and the previous one. It makes absolutely no sense that we are investing public money to improve the town of Roscommon while at the same time we have a semi-State company withdrawing its own investment from that town.