Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will do the best I can in the time available.

One can complement the other, but there are two very separate issues here that I wish to address. The first is the future of the post office network. We can talk about all the banking models in the world; if we do not have a network, we are going nowhere. Eighteen months ago, the chief executive of An Post came to me and told me that within 30 weeks An Post would run out of money and no longer be viable. There was no money to pay the staff. The issue of the local post office has been kicked down the road by Minister after Minister. The last time we had a new post office contract with postmasters in this country was in 1907. I gave a commitment to postmasters long before I was appointed Minister that I would try to have this issue brought to a head once and for all and plan out a clear future for the post office network. The solution that was presented to me 18 months ago was that we would reduce the postal deliveries to a three-days-a-week service in rural areas and that we would see vast swathes of rural Ireland without access to post offices.

The post office network is not viable without a sustainable An Post. There are 1,122 post offices throughout the country and my intention, despite some of what has been said today, is to try to maintain the maximum possible number. That is the objective of the company itself. There will be no compulsory closures - zero. Senator Leyden asked about viable post offices. A viable post office cannot close under this protocol unless it is taken up by another person, particularly another retailer in the community. Even when it comes to post offices that are not viable, if someone else within that community - a retailer, for example - is prepared to take on that service, it can continue in that community.That is the factual situation. Senator Norris is wrong in regard to the post offices and communities that he listed earlier. Postmasters have been written to and they have been provided with an offer, but there is a clear procedure in place that has to be followed. An independent review process is in place and the joint committee will review that protocol after six months of operation to ensure we protect communities across the country.

An Post has four big strengths - its brand recognition, it is trusted by the public, its nationwide network and it had a van delivering five days a week. Now, of course, that has expanded and it is now delivering parcels six days a week to every single premises in Ireland. I welcome that expansion of its parcel service and hope to see it extended. The difficulty is that many postmasters and postmistresses believe that digital services are the end of the post office, whereas I believe the opposite and that it provides us with huge opportunities to provide additional, new services through the post office.

Some of those services are delivered on an agency basis. In my initial contribution I pointed to the bill payments service where over-the-counter services for Electric Ireland, Bord Gáis and so forth are provided through the post offices. I listed three banks where, again, an agency service is being provided to customers. That is an agency service and it was never planned to be a banking service provided by An Post. Nonetheless, An Post is providing financial services to 1.7 million customers on an annual basis and this provides the company with a huge opportunity. An Post is exploring a range of financial services and the banking counter service for the three banks is only a small aspect of this. That service has been in place for years but is not being utilised to the extent that it could be to bring additional income into the post office network. An Post is looking at additional banking services, including current account, loans and other credit facilities.

I want to pick up on a point made by Senator Anthony Lawlor. Everyone is talking about a German banking model, but Senators Lawlor and James Reilly were the only two who mentioned the other banking model - the credit union movement. I have extensive engagement with the credit union movement, which could provide far more services and which is anxious to lend to customers and to small businesses. This is an issue I have taken up directly with the Minister for Finance, namely, how can we unlock the capital and potential in respect of that ethos which is so robust across the country.

We need to look at every avenue. That is why we are so determined to expand digital services, particularly Government digital services, in order to provide an offline option for people in communities. This should not be just in regard to Government services but also services such as switcher.ieand bonkers.iewhereby people can save up to €300 on their electricity bills. People who are offline cannot avail of that today and the post office should, and must, be able to provide it.

Separately, we need a new banking model in this country. Whether it is the Kiwibank, An Post, credit union or Sparkassen model, I do not care, but we need another avenue. While this is something I am committed to, the House should not for one minute believe Kiwibank is the solution to protecting the post office network in Ireland. They are two separate issues. The Kiwibank website states:

The challenge

An outdated retail network experience that is expensive to run and doesn’t fit our modern customer needs for both postal services and for Kiwibank.

Our plan

Our plan is to deliver our customers' postal and banking services in ways that better meet their needs – this includes in-store and digitally.

It is happening in New Zealand, where they are trying to wind down their retail network. What I am trying to do as Minister is maintain, insofar as is humanly possible, the maximum number of post offices across the country. I believe the best, most fruitful and most productive way to do that is through delivering digital services offline in local communities through the Government.

I listened to the contributions made today. Bobby Kerr prepared a report a number of years ago. There were 226 Oireachtas Members at the time. How many of those 226 bothered to make a submission to Bobby Kerr on suggested futures for the post office? The answer is six - myself and five others. What I am talking about in regard to digital assist is having an offline service for Government online services, and this was in my submission to Bobby Kerr. As Minister, I am determined to follow through on that, engaging with ministerial colleagues and with the Office of Government Procurement. I intend to deliver on that because the postmasters, An Post and I believe that it is the best available opportunity today to bring cash flow into local post offices and maintain as many of those 1,122 post offices as is humanly possible.