Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I pay tribute to former Senator and councillor, Mary Jackman, who died during the week. It is my first opportunity to do so on the Order of Business. I was a councillor for 12 and a half years and I regularly met Mary at various conferences, often travelling with her sister. She was always great company and an absolute lady. I think she spent almost 30 years on Limerick City and County Council and a couple of terms in the Seanad. I pay tribute to her. I found her to be an engaging human being and a really nice lady to be in the company of.

I do not know if any other Senator has done so already, but I welcome the funding for An Post, particularly those really small post offices that are not viable based on their transactions. I think most of us understand that postmasters are, by and large, not employed by An Post. I think almost 880 of the 930 post offices, or thereabouts, are run as individual businesses, whereby the only revenue they get is per transaction.

The message needs to go out to all those people who use the post office and all those who want to make sure their post offices survive that this funding is there to support them but that if they want their post offices to continue in operation, they must use them or they will, unfortunately, probably, lose them. The message is to use them more often and to get one's friends to do so.

An Post is a highly trusted brand. People can use An Post for bank transactions with AIB and Bank of Ireland and lots of other services. It is important we support An Post because, particularly during the pandemic, post offices were rocks in every community right around the country. Urban, suburban and rural areas really need their post offices. It is important we recognise that they generate their revenue per transaction, so the more business they get the more viable they are and the more likely they are to survive.

I wish everybody involved with Dublin Airport - the staff, the management and all the passengers - the very best this weekend. The airport management is on trial, if you will. We had its representatives before the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications yesterday. We can never see those scenes again. We can never see literally thousands of people missing flights to go perhaps to funerals or weddings or on holidays, business trips and so on. It cannot happen again, and we must keep all our focus on the situation until it is resolved.