Mary White (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I second Senator MacSharry's proposed amendment to the Order of Business.

Just over two weeks ago, Mr. Pat Spillane, a very well regarded man in the world of GAA and in Ireland generally, published a report by CEDRA entitled "Energising Ireland's Rural Economy". The report was published after extensive consultations all over Ireland and it highlights the economic crisis facing our fellow citizens in rural Ireland. It draws particular attention to the lack of integrated planning between Government Departments and State bodies. Each Department and the State body is working in a silo and is immune to what is happening in other Departments and bodies, with the result that disastrous decisions are being made all over the country. Today 40% of our fellow citizens live in rural Ireland and they are experiencing the loss and closure of key amenities like Garda stations, banks and public houses as well as being threatened with the closure of post offices and schools. Last night there was an excellent report by Michael Lehane on the 9 o'clock news on RTE on the village of Ballycolla in Laois, where the post office is threatened with closure at the end of the month. The villagers spoke of their anguish about the survival of their village. Their fear was visceral. Most of the villagers are pensioners and the post office is the mainstay of the village. The people are completely reliant on the post office for banking, paying bills, collecting their pensions and more. The lady who owns the local shop in the village explained that people go to the post office to collect their pensions and then they do their shopping in the local shop. The whole fabric of the village will be affected by this closure.

In February last there was a protest by the Irish Postmasters Union outside Leinster House. I spoke at the time with Councillor Mary Bohan, who is the postmistress of Drumkeerin post office, who told me that many of the main banks have closed their smaller branches in rural areas which means that many people, particularly the elderly, now depend on post offices to lodge and withdraw cash. She also pointed out that many older people do not have transport to bring them to the nearest town to do their banking so they are totally dependent on the local post office. We must stop the decline of our rural communities.

Yesterday I spoke about the savage cuts affecting older people and the withdrawal of discretionary medical cards from more than 50,000 people.