Results 31,101-31,120 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton
- Leaders’ Questions (16 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: I am just asking in the interests of debate.
- Leaders’ Questions (16 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: I asked because I am aware that Deputy Robert Troy has a long-standing interest in post offices.
- Leaders’ Questions (16 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: I am just asking if there is a commercial interest.
- Leaders’ Questions (16 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: When Fianna Fáil was in government, it closed 197 post offices.
- Leaders’ Questions (16 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: In fairness, Deputy Robert Troy said many were voluntary decisions made by postmasters because, for instance, a family member was retiring and no one else wanted to take on the job. Of the 25 closures during the Government’s tenure, almost all have been for that exact reason. Like other Deputies, I, too, was involved in my constituency in efforts to recruit a new postmaster or...
- Leaders’ Questions (16 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: The figure is €50 million and it is higher when other departmental services supplied through the post office network are taken into account. To suggest it is half that figure is pretty poor counting by somebody involved in the post office network. That is why I asked Deputy Robert Troy if he had a personal awareness and familiarity with the post office system. I would have expected...
- Leaders’ Questions (16 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: Up to 200,000 people in this country do not have a formal bank account.
- Leaders’ Questions (16 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: Let me say as Minister for Social Protection that, in that context, the Department of Social Protection relies on the post office system to make payments to the people who do not have bank accounts, and we will continue to rely on it.
- Leaders’ Questions (16 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: We also require the post office to be available for people-----
- Leaders’ Questions (16 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: -----to collect their social welfare jobseeker's payments through the post office and turn up in person to collect them. It is for that reason that the post office has a very large and very valuable contract with the Department of Social Protection, worth more than €50 million. Fianna Fáil seems unable to count because it is suggesting that it is worth less than half of that....
- Leaders’ Questions (16 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: They are the first few facts-----
- Leaders’ Questions (16 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: -----that I would like to give to Deputy Troy.
- Leaders’ Questions (16 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: I was just questioning why the Deputy's facts were so wrong.
- Leaders’ Questions (16 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: I am happy to say that-----
- Leaders’ Questions (16 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: -----my Department provides over €50 million worth of business to the post office system in Ireland.
- Leaders’ Questions (16 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: It is its largest single customer.
- Leaders’ Questions (16 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: Normally, when entities have a significant and important customer-----
- Leaders’ Questions (16 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: -----I expect the people who are being paid-----
- Leaders’ Questions (16 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: -----for the service to give a good service to the people who use the post offices. That is what the people who use the post offices want. The biggest problem is the fact that so few people who use post offices have a full bank account. The purpose of the recent report by Mr. Bobby Kerr and the recent examination under the auspices of the Minister of State for rural affairs was, in fact,...
- Leaders’ Questions (16 Jul 2015)
Joan Burton: -----who run and who work in the post offices.