Jimmy Harte (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will share my time with Senator John Kelly. I welcome the Minister to the Chamber. In many towns in Ireland the post office is where people make contact with their neighbours. Nowadays many people live in estates but do not meet their neighbours on the street. However, once a week or more often they meet them in the post office, which most often also has a small shop attached to supplement its income.

I refer to the important news last week from the Minister for Social Protection about the other preferred bidder for dealing with social welfare payments. I live in Letterkenny and this week, a second post office was opened in a built up area of the town. I have been calling for such a facility for years but for some reason, An Post would not contemplate a second post office even though there is a queue of 80 yds to 100 yds long every day outside the Letterkenny post office. I raised the matter two years ago at the local town council. Members of the town council who had outside interests voted against it while the same councillors welcomed the recent opening of the second post office. I will not go into the details of why they voted against it. An Post was very slow to recognise the need for a second post office when every person and every dog in the street can see customers are queuing in the rain and demanding a second post office. It took An Post about three to five years to come to that conclusion.

I do not understand the thinking in An Post generally but I welcome the opportunity for An Post to provide extra services. At one time, the town of Raphoe had a post office, three banks, two building societies and now it has one bank, one post office and a credit union. There is an opportunity for An Post to develop its services in all areas. I proposed that the motor tax should be payable through the post office system 25 years ago when I was in business in Raphoe. People were taking out car insurance with me and then they had to go to Lifford to queue up to pay their motor tax. The county manager at the time said my suggestion was a good idea but he said the Revenue and the tax service would not allow that to happen. I ask the Minister to clarify if motor tax payments and other services could be facilitated at An Post offices in the future. The Revenue deals with the property tax but in my view motor tax is straightforward. County council charges are another payment that could be dealt with at the post office counters. It does not matter the size of the office because the post office provides a vital service.

The future of post offices is more secure now than previously. The closure of bank branches could be an ill wind because the post offices can deal with money lodgments and it may be time to consider allowing customers to withdraw money from their bank accounts at the post office counter. For example, Raphoe has one ATM in the town - this situation is quite common in other towns - and if it is not working the nearest town is nearly ten miles away. Some shops are able to supply cash to customers but this is not always available. The post office is open on Saturdays and could provide cash when the banks are closed or the ATM is out of order which is a regular occurrence.