Alison Comyn (Fianna Fail)

As the Minister of State correctly noticed, I have a handwritten letter with a stamp on it in my hand. I get thousands of emails per month, like everyone else in the Chamber. It is quite special to still be able to get a handwritten letter in a handwritten envelope with a stamp on it. What we need to protect and preserve is the ability and choice for somebody who wants to do that because, as has been said time and again, our post offices are the beating heart of the community. While that may be a little bit of a cliché, to take away that centre and hub is to take away a huge amount from communities. There is an onus on us to protect post offices.

I appreciate the Government support for infrastructure - it is in our programme for Government - and the investment provided in budget 2026. This is all very welcome. However, we are living in a bewildering world of artificial intelligence, AI, social media and everything going online. We have to look back to what happened during Covid when continuing to use services online was seen as a bonus. For instance, a great legacy of Covid was that we can now attend funerals online. With everything else that has happened - shopping, working and even dating online - what happens is that it isolates the rest of the community. We have a vulnerable and older community who still like to enter a post office to do their business. That is what we need to protect. Let us look at what is happening with social media and the dissemination, misinformation and disinformation. It is not a place to be safe at the moment. It may seem retrograde but we need to return to a scenario where people can attend and know they are carrying out their business in a safe and secure manner.

As I said, the investment has been welcome. The Minister of State engaged with the postmasters prior to the budget, as did I.They are very grateful for the amount of investment that is happening. Having spoken to some independent postmasters in my area of south Louth and east Meath, I am aware that there is still concern that this will only plug a hole and will not be the long-term solution they feel is required.

Many feel they have not received a pay increase. Their pay has been frozen since 2008. They have received no further payment for the likes of social security benefit payments since 2008, and that is not sustainable. Everything else, including the cost of living and staff pay, has increased. If we want to protect what we have, we have to be able to look after our postmasters and nurture it as a viable career going forward.

There may be two post offices in an area and one may be forced to close because it may only be used by certain number of people. That seems very unfair. We need to encourage the use of these services. I agree that it is very useful for people to be able to pay their TV licence or get their pension paid online, but that is simply not for everybody. Credit unions are amalgamating and taking away vital services from communities. We need to nurture our post offices. It is probably incumbent on An Post to deal with this. A postmaster told me earlier that An Post must step up in respect of its constitutional and corporate responsibility to provide postmasters with a secure future and to make sure they receive investment in order that they can move forward.