Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like other Senators, I refer to Ulster Bank and call on the State to intervene yet again. We did so ten years ago and it was the right thing to do. We must intervene again. We must do so for the customers and the workers and to ensure that there is a competitive banking sector in this country. Our previous intervention was aimed at ensuring that we had an effective banking system. We cannot allow a situation to develop where effective competition is reduced to the point where we do not have an appropriate marketplace. That will require the intervention of the State and if it is done appropriately and correctly - and quickly - then the many workers who earn an income and who depend on the bank for their livelihoods will be protected, as will customers.

The State must also, as part of addressing banking system, look at addressing our post office network. We have spoken previously about how a Grant Thornton report prepared for the postmasters identified a requirement of €17 million to protect the network as it is currently constituted. Today, in the village of Broadford, east County Claire, final notification is coming of the closure of the post office just because the postmaster has retired. This is at time when Covid-19 has restructured the way we live our lives such that people want to go back and live in rural communities. They want to telework and to work through Zoom and Microsoft Teams and other mechanisms. They want to live in their villages away from the clusters they had become used to. Why then is An Post closing post offices in places like Broadford where there is a growing community? The nearest other post office is 15 km away. There is no justification for what is happening. State intervention is required. A level of funding is needed to support a public service obligation on the part of An Post to maintain the network as it is currently constituted.We, in this House, need to address that as soon as possible.