Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is not going to happen.

Commercial banks in Ireland control our markets and our lives and they are predatory. The Minister has known for years that the post office network required investment and creative thinking, and the Government has failed. We have no State or community banks. AIB, Ulster Bank and Danske Bank will not become community banks, while Germany has 1,400 of them.

If I were working in the post office, I would start a strike to get those profiteering banks out the door and to adopt the models I have discussed across the country. It only takes creative and imaginative thought to do it and to get on with it. We seem to be lazy about it. Where is the motion on this that was presented to the Dáil that 158 Dáil Deputies signed? Where is the submission of Irish Rural Link, which was mentioned, that relates to the Sparkassen public bank foundation in Germany. What about the Grant Thornton report, which discussed the financial issues and the decline in the post office network and the €60 million needed for the processing of social welfare payments which was ignored?

The Minister has sidetracked opportunities on motor tax, proper community banking, payment of household charges and hospital charges, and he has not implemented the commitment in the programme for Government. I am very much a believer in Fine Gael and all it has done, but this has gone wayward. I recommend the Move your Money campaign. This will be a thorn in the side of the Government. One has to stand up somewhere and I will stand up against the commerciality of the post office. I will suggest to An Post that it takes my advice, closes the doors, and does not put up the great retail manager who cannot write a sentence, and kick AIB and Ulster Bank out of every post office. It will bring An Post to the place where we now are.