Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to alert Senators to the fact that UPC is ending its relationship with An Post. The company will no longer allow any citizen in Ireland to pay his or her UPC bill at a local post office. The relationship in this regard is all over and UPC is walking away. One must now have a credit card or a debit card and a bank account to pay one's UPC bill. Many elderly people do not have any of these. UPC is capitulating to the great banking model. Some 3.5 million people use the services of An Post. The Government is trying to keep An Post alive but UPC - representatives of which went to An Post on their knees a few years ago begging it to allow their customers to use its facilities to pay their bills - is now walking away.