Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Kyne, for being present for this important debate. I too am substituting on behalf of my Seanad colleague, Senator Leyden, who is at a British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly meeting in London.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Communications Regulation (Postal Services) (Amendment) Bill 2016. The Fianna Fail Party supports this Bill as a necessary step in ensuring the sustainability of An Post. However, the long-term future of our postal services needs a much broader range of measures to keep an active post office network alive and well across the country. The system is under serious financial pressure and requires fresh thinking, not just simple price increases.

It has now been eight months since the formation of this Government, with little movement by Government on outlining a plan to safeguard the future of the post office network. Currently, Government responsibility for post offices and its future network renewal resides between two Departments and three different Ministers. The Government received Bobby Kerr's report almost a year ago which outlined a number of practical solutions to address the problems in An Post but it has yet to take any action. This is unacceptable.

The Government must put a new emphasis on defending services in Ireland, particularly rural Ireland, and must stop neglecting ideas that are being put forward. Securing the role of post offices as community hubs is a vital component of that. This Bill seeks to remove the price cap that is currently placed on stamps in response to the financial difficulties An Post has been experiencing. The Bill also accords responsibility to ComReg to review the effects of repealing a price cap, a review which must be commenced two years after the enactment of the legislation and which must be concluded within six months of its start date.

A standard stamp in Ireland costs 72 cent and is 21 cent cheaper than the EU average. Bringing the price of the stamp more closely into line with the EU average will help An Post to regain financial sustainability and to continue to serve its customers, but inevitably volumes will fall. At the same time, making the mail delivery component of An Post more profitable will not save the entire network. Mail delivery represents an increasingly small portion of An Post's overall business, something which will likely be accelerated by an increase in price.

We need to seriously consider other options to diversify An Post's business model and to ensure the long-term sustainability of the network. Fianna Fail believes the post office network in Ireland is more than simple buildings supporting a commercial enterprise. Post offices are an important strategic asset, which play an invaluable role as the centre point of community and commercial activity in urban and rural Ireland. These offices provide key State services and often reduce social isolation.

As one of the most trusted brands in Ireland, An Post has the potential to increase the commercial success and business activity of the post office to a greater level. The Fianna Fail Party has repeatedly fought to defend the network against Fine Gael's past inaction and incompetence. We therefore put forward the following proposal to consolidate the post office network and increase commercial activity in every post office unit. The network needs to be guaranteed as it currently exists. We need to allow post offices to become the centre for many different State payments and charges, including motor tax and banking services. We did have a post bank offering before which did not work out, but this needs to be looked at again in the context of the different banking environment we have now, which is very different from the environment that Postbank was operating in at that time.

Equally there are many fines that could be dealt with via the post office as opposed to by the courts or the local authorities. I know the local authority on which I served moved the rental payments from the council offices and ceased to have a cash office and got people to make the payment through the post office. Our local authority is doing its bit to help the post office network. There was a situation where my former local authority would have to pay €150 to do a secure cash delivery and would have only picked up €30 to €40. The post office offers a major retail network and it is important to harness it where possible.

We can create shared community services and a multipurpose space in rural post offices, and also provide Internet and print facilities at those offices, particularly where appropriate and where volumes are currently very low. We should extend the Department of Social Protection contract. It is very worrying, particularly for rural communities, that the Department of Social Protection previously encouraged people to receive welfare payments directly through their bank account rather than by collection at the post office, taking crucial transactions away from post offices. It is inevitable that cash payments will reduce over time and electronic payments will increase, but perhaps there is an opportunity for people to go to their post office as a signing in facility and that the post office is there to verify their identity and to ensure persons are still in the country and are still available for work and seeking work.Even if the cash is moved electronically rather than being transported to post offices and then given to people who are spending it in the shop and bringing it back to the post office, the post office could be harnessed to do some of the work it is currently doing for cash payments. We have been campaigning for the past two years for the Department of Social Protection to immediately stop issuing letters about moving to electronic payments. In July 2016, the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, relented and performed a U-turn by directing his Department to cease instructing welfare recipients to transfer their payments from the post office to banks. The Government has failed to secure the long-term future of An Post's agreement with the Department of Social Protection and has placed it on a yearly basis. The Government has failed to commit to protecting the existing postal network despite announcing a whole-of-Government approach to the development of An Post before the European and local elections in 2014. Concrete actions are needed as opposed to PR and spin. In supporting this Bill, Fianna Fáil recognises the positive impact it can have on An Post, the post office network and those who are employed in the provision of the service. However, it is in no way an acceptance that it is a solution to An Post's problems. We will continue to hold the Government to account on this issue and to put forward innovative policies on revitalising the network.

It is important to outline the scale of An Post's operations. It has 1,130 offices employing 3,700 people; 51 are owned by An Post and the remainder are independently contracted to An Post. They are often co-located with other retail units where it is of benefit to the shop to be with the post office and to the post office to be with the shop. According to An Post, 99% of addresses in the country are within 10 km of a post office and 93% are within 5 km of a post office. At the finance committee, of which I am a member, we regularly lament that the banks are closing down and pulling out and consequently, the post office is an even more vital part of communities than it was before. It handles around 120 million transactions but mail volumes have declined by 38% since their peak in 2007. We will see that again. My bank, UPC, Vodafone and so on are all asking people to go electronic. As mail volumes will fall we must, as a nation and a Government, ensure the future of An Post by refreshing it, giving it new, additional services and promoting efficiencies across all Departments of the State. There should be a whole-of-Government approach to An Post.

I thank the Minister of State and look forward to hearing his response.