Cathal Byrne (Fine Gael)

I want to highlight a meeting that I attended with the representatives of the Irish Postmasters Union, IPU. The tradition of the post office is very close to my own family. My grandfather served his entire working career as both a small farmer and the local postman where my mother is from in north-west Cork. This morning I met with Sean Martin and other representatives of the IPU who highlighted the urgent need for increased levels of Government investment. At the moment, the Government through the Minister is funding the post office network to the tune of approximately €10 million in direct intervention. The IPU representatives are seeking an increase of €5 million to €15 million a year. The contract is due to expire at the end of this year. They have highlighted to me the fact that of the 900 post offices that we currently have across the country, approximately 300 are at risk of closure. They produced the report from Grant Thornton to validate this. It highlighted the incredible value of the post office network on a social and economic basis to the economy of between €344 million and €776 million. I ask that the Minister comes to the Chamber to explain and give more detail on his plans once the current arrangement concludes at the end of this year. What is to replace it? The IPU representatives also highlighted that because of the increases in inflation and increases in costs faced by postmasters, some of the Government grants, such as the power up grant, were not available to them given the nature of the work that they do. I encourage a debate on this issue and the Minister might give us his thoughts on it going forward.