Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will do so. I thank the Leas-Cathaoirleach.

I ask the Deputy Leader to request that the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Naughten, come to the House to tell Senators what exactly and definitely is happening with An Post. I raise this because it is a very big national issue in which the Seanad should be involved. Can the Minister tell us about the closures of post offices and his thoughts for the future and waylay the arguments taking place on the matter on television, radio and in the press?

PostPoint-operated "post and pay" sites offering the same products as An Post offices, such as bill payments, stamps, gift cards and additional services such as national, international, express and registered mail and Post FX Load, are now being opened in Tesco stores. There are such sites in Tesco stores in Naas, Tullamore, Cabra, Ballybrack and Gorey along with Eurospar in Laghey and SuperValu stores in Monksland and Navan. That locks into the federal state and authoritarianism because one will now have to capitulate to the great Tesco if one wants to use An Post services. It is another reason for An Post offices around the country to be closed down. In order to use post office services, people will have to congregate in the great supermarkets that never display their profits in this country. We should instead consider community banking systems such as that offered by Kiwi PostBank of New Zealand or the German public banking model that would offer an alternative to the commercial banking system here in which one cannot talk to anybody because the only option is to talk to a machine or the wall. I want to know what is going on with An Post and how this type of thing is happening below the radar in a clandestine manner such that people are not noticing it. Perhaps the Minister could come to the House to tell us exactly what is going on.

I will bring the issue of the Order of Business to the Committee on Procedure and Privilege and I thank the Leas-Cathaoirleach for his advice in that regard.