Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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12. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment for an update on his Department's efforts to fulfil the programme for Government commitment to provide the nationwide network of post offices with funding to ensure their sustainability and enhance the value they bring to local communities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52247/25]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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The Government is committed to a sustainable An Post and post office network as a key component of the economic and social infrastructure throughout Ireland. The programme for Government states that the Government will continue to provide the nationwide network of post offices with funding to ensure their sustainability and enhance the value they bring to local communities. The Department is working to deliver on this and is engaging with relevant stakeholders in relation to future funding, including for securing of a new mandate from the Government to continue funding at an enhanced level while ensuring an adequate legal basis and compliance with state aid rules. In due course, I will seek the Government's approval to progress legislation to affect the funding to provide certainty to the network post 2025.

An amount of €10 million per annum is being provided over a three-year fixed period from 2023 to 2025 to An Post. An Post then disperses this funding across the post office network, with all contractor post offices benefiting from the Government funding with the objective of securing the stability of the network. The funding is being paid monthly for each 12-month period. To date, over €25 million has been claimed by An Post for the network. The current funding provides time and space for An Post to accelerate the transformation and commercialisation of the network to ensure a relevant, commercially viable network delivering more services to citizens and small businesses.

An Post is a commercial semi-State body with a mandate to act commercially. An Post has statutory responsibility for the State's postal service and the post office network. Decisions relating to the network, including decisions relating to specific post offices are operational matters for the board and management of the company and are not ones in which I, as Minister, have any function. Similarly, the terms of the postmasters’ contract with An Post are a matter between the postmasters and An Post. Any negotiations are a matter for both parties directly.

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Government's ongoing commitment to continue to provide the nationwide network of post offices with funding to ensure their sustainability and enhance the value they bring to local communities. As the Minister knows very well, it is not simply about delivering post; it is increasingly about connections and access to the world through a local service. My constituency is one of the largest in the country and is continuously growing, with a total of 4,000 homes built over five years. As the area expands, new estates, such as Kilmartin Grove in the area of Hollywoodrath, have recently faced problems with postal deliveries. The estate has not been logged for regular service by An Post, resulting in irregular deliveries and missed notices. There are the same issues in Carpenterstown and Luttrellstown, where residents have said they have been getting extremely erratic deliveries for several months, including no letter deliveries for several days and parcels sitting in our delivery office for up to one week. The same issues are happening in Castleknock and Clonsilla when people are on holidays.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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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.

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The level of the communication I have received on this shows that people appreciate their postal delivery service. I am fully aware of the period of transformation that An Post has been undergoing in recent years, which is a positive transformation, and the areas of potential growth. Nevertheless, we have to keep the basics working. When issues have been directly raised with An Post and people are told there has been no designated post person for that area for several months, that is quite frustrating. I recognise the changing role of An Post, but we have to get those basics right. I appreciate the Minister raising this directly on my behalf with An Post because these are issues that have been going on for over one year. They are not just affecting one part of the constituency; it is sporadically all parts of the constituency. It is very much areas of new growth and homes that are not being included in the plans.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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If the Deputy sends me those details, I will arrange to do that. One thing I have a concern about, which I have previously raised, is that there is an obvious rush and everyone wants to see this rush around digitisation of public services, and that is a good thing. However, every time we take a letter out of the hands of An Post, there is a gap in where the company has to find that money. Over the past number of years, we have taken millions of letters out of the hands of An Post through various digitisation schemes, which have been looked for and welcomed in this House and pushed by people. That is all very well and good, but it has a knock-on consequence. We are not in a position where we can subsidise the postal service under EU state aid rules, as I outlined. Every letter that comes out of the hands of a postman has a knock-on consequence. While An Post is making great strides in parcel delivery, my hope is that it continues in that vein. Postal services across Europe have changed and they are going to change more, and we also have to accept that reality in Ireland. We have to be prepared to accept it. People cannot have a mail service without there being an increase in the price of stamps at the same time. Those two things do not make sense. I appreciate that the Deputy is trying to inject a bit of honesty into this debate, because for too long the postal services in this country have been politicalised to the point of being dishonest.