Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

I know well the area Senator Brendan Ryan referred to and I understand his concern as a local representative about any diminution in service. That is a matter that can be brought up by representatives with An Post directly but it is a commercial matter for the company and as Minister I cannot get down to directing or managing on a local area basis. That would be an impossible situation. We are trying to maintain certain standards in the Bill, with certain levels of service per population area. In the legislation we are providing for all communities to ensure there is a protection of universal service, quality and standards.

The provision of post offices is not affected by the directive. An Post's responsibility pursuant to the Posts and Telecommunications Services Act 1983 to provide counter services for the company's own and the Government's business is not being amended in this Bill. The majority of post offices are operated by postmasters under commercial contract with An Post and the closure of a post office is a contractual matter between An Post and the individual postmaster in question. Post offices are only closed where An Post has been unsuccessful in recruiting a replacement postmaster to take on a particular vacancy.

I cannot accept amendment No. 33 which relates to the closure of a post box or similar access point. As regards a designated universal provider, section 16(10) provides that ComReg may, following a public consultation process, direct the provider, for the purpose of ensuring the density of access points and the provision of points of contact for users with universal service postal providers, to take account of the reasonable needs of postal service users. ComReg already had this direction under the current regulation and section 16(10) restates it in primary legislation.

For commercial service providers other than the designated universal service provider, establishing or removing access points to their networks are purely commercial decisions. I understand and accept the point the Senator made. It is a good example. The Bill, however, will provide a guarantee on certain access levels and conditions of service. The strength of the postal service is its distributive nature, that it has an access network that runs throughout the country. We must protect and maintain this. I am committed to doing that because it provides a huge social as well economic resource to the State.