Sarah O'Reilly (Aontú)

The Minister of State is very welcome. This is a very important subject. In the past ten years, 257 post offices have closed. In Cavan, seven post offices in total have closed permanently in the past ten years, including in Corrraneary, Killeshandra, Kilnaleck, Mount Nugent, Swanlinbar and Tullyvin. The north west is getting one of the biggest hits of all, including the Minister of State's county of Donegal.

The post office network is the social fabric of our communities. Friday is a huge social day out for people and a chance to catch up, do the shopping, pay the bills, get the phone credit and have lunch out. Every town that has a post office that is open and working has the same buzz on a Friday. Post office staff help our elderly and people who are not digitally literate with forms, read the requirements for application forms or give advice on people's entitlements and what to do. I know people who work in a post office. They tell me there is pressure on service users to sign up for online payments. That needs to be addressed. I remember when Kilnaleck post office in Cavan was closing, a crowd of Government TDs lined up for photos at the protest against the closure. The photos and the representations of those TDs to the Government did not save that post office, but I noticed these same TDs were relentlessly promoting passports online. The irony was that reduced business to the very post office they were trying to save.

We need to be more in tune with the unintended consequences of new initiatives and our own actions. We need digital inclusion. It is a brilliant one-stop shop for all, with bill payments, phone credit and everything you could possibly want. We must invest in the future of the post office network that is at the heart of our communities. I thank the Chair for allowing me in.