Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. This is the general response from the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment. I understand that the Government is committed and has provided resources but to say that the additional supports have been given to An Post and practical steps have been taken to launch a new digital assist pilot initiative, with Government funding to be provided through the post office network, is little consolation to people losing post offices in their own towns or villages. They will not be able to access those services because their post office is gone. The manner in which this happened is all wrong. The forward thinking should have happened before any decision about closing post offices took place. The door is now closed, the horse has left the stable and people are losing out. It is very poor public policy and the Department has really got this wrong. The level of engagement with An Post was very poor.

An Post has to be financially viable but there were many other options of providing additional State services through the post office network to assist with the viability of post offices that could have been looked at first. That did not happen and we are here now. I am not making a political point on the issue since it has been going on for many years. It should have been dealt with and was not. Will the Minister of State ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment to instruct An Post to engage with communities that contact it? That is not happening at present.