Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Like others, I want to send my solidarity to the family of Nadine Lott. As this is an alleged assault, we cannot comment further on the particulars, but we know that 230 women have died due to violence in this country since 1996, with six so far this year. We have asked for a debate in the House to look at the impact of the legislation and how it is being implemented. It is important that we do that in the new year. We need an all-island approach to domestic violence and violence against women.

Today, I want to speak about the lack of State services being given to An Post and why this Government is encouraging people to bypass post offices and do their transactions and claims online. They should have their local post offices as the first option, not the last option behind being encouraged to conduct transactions online. Why is motor tax not available through the post office? Why is the Central Bank not encouraging people to bank through their post offices? Another problem is that, in the case of some of the post offices that were closed temporarily and then reopened in parishes such as Ballycroy, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is not interacting with the post offices. All their claims have been moved to another post office but they were not automatically changed back though they should have been. All of the claimants got letters when the post office was closing but they did not get letters when the post office was reopening. Payments need to be brought back to local post offices. People are afraid to move payments from one post office to the other because they are afraid of losing their payments or that their payments might be late. I ask that the Leader take this up with the Minister and ask the Minister to look at the temporary closure of post offices and the transactions with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.

The CEO of An Post, David McRedmond, said in an interview on Sunday that the general incompetence of the Government is to blame for citizens not being able to access the full range of State services through the post office network. The Government really needs to get serious about our post office services. In 2018, 159 post offices were closed, mostly in small rural areas. We cannot allow this to continue. Post offices are a vital part of our rural communities. They provide a social and economic hub for people, and they provide valuable local employment. The Government should look at improving the post office network and ensuring that it gets the full range of Government services. The Government must look at a coherent and properly resourced strategy with firm proposals that will secure the future of post offices and the thousands who are employed. I ask for a debate on that in the new year. We should bring the Minister in to present concrete proposals about how these matters regarding rural post offices will be addressed. Areas without post offices are not areas that serve the community well.