Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This morning I was at the Ombudsman's office for the progress report on "A Good Death". I am happy to say that there has been major progress and development in end of life care in Irish acute hospitals. There was a group from Malawi present and they were following the Ombudsman for a week or two to see how he works. Their biggest concern was where they would get food and clean water. I have always felt that if the Irish people metaphorically got on an aeroplane and landed in Calcutta for a month, we might find out a different definition of poverty, and if we went off to Japan we might find out a different definition of manners.

However, the progress has been good. One of the big issues the Ombudsman points out to us is our lack of communication; that we do not communicate tragedy and bad news well, and also our lack of language. We have changed our language now. Nobody dies in Ireland; we just pass, like kidney stones or disappear into a hedge. There is no such thing. We do not hold on to the ritual of that. He also pointed out the space and place within hospitals. It was good. The Leader started this, as then Chairman of the Joint Committee on Health and Children many years ago, and I got the opportunity to look at this area. It will happen to 100% of us and we should really take it very seriously.

We have had protests all over the past week and during the summer about the closure of certain post offices that had to close and certain ones that did not have to close in villages and towns around the country and about the decline of rural Ireland. I would like to invite the Minister back in here. The reason I want Deputy Naughten to come in is because I think this has more to do with a banking system. I am very interested in social banking, as the Senators will be aware, and community banking. There is wind of high level negotiations between the top cats in the post office and Ulster Bank. The banks play agency roles within the post office. That is how we pay our bills and there is nothing wrong with that. I refer to a commercial pillar bank that will be brought in under the auspices of An Post, outside community and social banking, and all the profits will go to it. The reason Bank of Ireland does not want to get into the post offices is because it got into the post offices in England and it will take billions of pounds to get the bank out, which the British people are trying to do. I would like the Minister to come in to find out whether all of these rumours are true. This will be the biggest election issue.The new poor; no competition; huge percentages; huge APR; and rural Ireland are the election issues. I will not be standing for election, but I am just communicating this to my colleagues here. I would like to have the Minister in to tell us if it is true that he is having high-level negotiations with the awfulness and appallingness of Ulster Bank and who put USC on everything we earn and a levy on every part of our pensions and every bit of money that comes in from the work we do. This is the banks together working under the auspices of sheer incompetence and greed. I would like to know whether that is true.