Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome. I enjoyed Senator Norris's contribution. It was very humorous but also very serious.

Those of us who live in rural Ireland know we are definitely at a crossroads when it comes to our future. No one can deny that rural Ireland is in decline. Of that there is no doubt. We have discussed the decline of rural Ireland, but someone must call a halt, and Government needs to play an important part in this. The main pillar banks have turned their backs on rural Ireland. We all see this. They have left the people with no banking service. It is a case of "if you do not like it, tough". Is anyone calling the banks to account? Is anyone calling them in and telling them this is not good enough? It is time Government did so. I know banks will tell us that everything is moving online and that this and that can be done online. Yes, we all want to embrace new technologies - that goes without saying - but, for many of our citizens, broadband, as the Minister knows well, is non-existent, so doing anything online is also non-existent. Many of our citizens, particularly the elderly, find the whole concept of dealing with the Internet very challenging, and we should not turn our back on those people. Once upon a time, the banking system was based on the person; it was person-focused. Now the person is more of an obstacle than anything else for the banks. We should not lose that human contact. We are Irish. We are different from the rest of the world. We believe in human contact, we believe in friendship and we believe in community. If we believe in all these things, we need to put the infrastructure in place that ensures we sustain those qualities. These qualities are reflected in the post office network. Senator Reilly mentioned in his contribution the importance of this and how we would woe its decline in years to come if we allowed it to disappear off the landscape. Unless Government acts very swiftly, that is exactly what will happen: the post office network will decline.

Regarding the addition of services to communities in rural parts of our country, this banking model is definitely worth consideration. I compliment Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell on her work in this area and Irish Rural Link for its work as well. Irish Rural Link made a presentation to Government in early 2017 and is awaiting the outcome of the Government's deliberations on that.

As I said, we are at a crossroads. It is over to the Minister and the Government to show us that rural Ireland is important and has a future. Part of this will involve putting the necessary infrastructure in place to ensure we have that future. Part of it involves adding more services to our already well-located post office network in order that our citizens will have contact with human beings as opposed to machines, where they can talk to the people behind the counters about issues they might have. This banking model, which has been hugely successful in Germany for over 200 years, to my mind, is a no-brainer and something we must embrace if we are serious about the future of rural Ireland.