Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This issue has troubled me greatly and it troubles significant tranches of rural Ireland, which has felt significantly under threat in the past two decades because of the removal of many services. We have seen the decline of rural pubs because of a myriad of changes, including the smoking ban and drink-driving legislation, all of which have been very appropriate. There has also been the downturn in the economy and we have seen the removal of local Garda stations in many small rural villages. It has been painful and difficult to defend the issue, it was probably necessary to close many of these stations.

The post office network is a completely different issue. A post office is vibrant and provides a comfort zone for the type of vulnerable people we spoke of earlier, including older people. It provides a link for them to communicate and a facility for information gathering.

It provides a community service and community activity. A post office in west Clare held a cake sale on Friday of last week to raise funds for a local charity. It held other activities a number of weeks previously. The post office is a very important element of community life in rural Ireland. The State should be putting more services into the post office. If the facility for paying the household charge had been available through the post office, the compliance rate would have been much higher. Many other services, such as dog licences and other licences and the payment of road fines and parking charges, should be available through the post office. The facility to pay utility bills is available at the moment but, again, these are semi-State companies availing of a useful service.

What troubles me greatly is the threat posed by the outsourcing or tendering out of the social welfare contract. I understand that social welfare and pension payments constitute up to 50% of the weekly business of some post offices in west Clare. It is not necessary to outsource this because it is being done perfectly well by post offices. I contend that one will not get a better service in terms of paying pensions and social welfare payments than one will get at the post office.

The citizens in receipt of social welfare and pension payments feel more comfortable collecting them from the post office than they would from any other type of private institution that may succeed in tendering for this contract. Many generations do not trust the banks but I am talking to older people who certainly do not trust them and would not want their pensions to be paid through them.

The postmasters, postmistresses and staff in the many rural post offices keep an eye on old people and, if they do not turn up for their pension, a red flag will be raised. This is a vital community service. We can look at the bottom line far too often. We must get value for money and have an obligation to do so but we always have a social responsibility as a Government. The Acting Chairman should bear with me because it affects his constituency as well. The Government has a social responsibility in respect of this issue that must be acknowledged and on which a price cannot be put. The threat that has been presented by the speculation surrounding this contract is appalling. The Minister is wrong in trying to save money in this way. If the system needs to be improved and efficiencies achieved, negotiations with An Post management should be entered into. Putting out to tender a contract as significant as this one that probably affects the largest number of vulnerable people is simply wrong. The Government has reversed decisions in the past that were wrong. It did so today in terms of the cuts to the number of special needs assistants and resource teaching hours. There would be nothing wrong with reversing this decision as well.