Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The lead story in The Irish Timestoday is that An Post has warned that it will be unable to pay its wage bill next month. That is the main story in our national newspaper today. There are clearly many issues about An Post and the future. We had some debate around the fringes of an amendment with the Minister yesterday but we need him to come back now. Last week, we were told that possibly 80 rural post offices would close. The CEO of An Post has rejected on the record an injection of €56 million in cash as a result of the Kerr report. He says it is not doable and that he cannot operate within that. He claims the overall operation is losing a substantial amount of money and that it needs a bigger and more sustainable plan. An Post itself has commissioned its own report from the McKinley Consulting Group which will report back to the board. That is somewhat different from the Kerr report which was commissioned earlier.We now hear that a survival operation must be put together. An Post must be sustained. However, this is all very different to the programme for Government, which I read this morning. Page 48 sets out a new model for An Post. There is a commitment to community hubs and a new banking system in An Post. The Government committed to investigating the German Sparkassemodel for the development of local banks in post offices, in addition to making them a hub for social welfare and motor tax services that would keep post offices in place in rural communities. That was part of the Government's commitment to sustaining rural communities. The programme for Government also referred to the establishment and further expansion of the post office network across the country. Could the Leader arrange to have the Minister with responsibility for An Post come to the House? All the post offices and communities around the country need to know what the Government policy is and what is the plan. There is no better person than the Minister to come to the House. It would be very helpful if the Leader could facilitate a debate in the Seanad on post offices.